Universe 16
by Katsuargi
Summary: The realization of a legend from ages old, and the strongest being to ever be born. What awaits him now that the demon has been vanquished? Based on Universe 16 of the Dragonball Multiverse manga.
1. Origins

As was usually the case, the night sky was completely dark, save the bright full moon that provided a luminous glow across the surface of the planet. Traditionally, this would have been accompanied by loud roars and the stomping of feet, but on this night the air was unusually quite, peaceful. To anyone that knew better, this was a very odd occurrence indeed.

If one was to listen closely they would come to hear a slightly murmur, identified with some difficulty as voices. But they weren't the voice of a single individual, but the combined mess of a large group. Following these sounds back, one would find themselves drawn to a large marble structure. Open and without walls, pillars lined the outside, joining the ceiling to the floor and giving it the support it needed to stand. Rows and rows of benches faced downwards to a large pit, which if one knew better was quickly identified as a fighting ring.

Massive was this stage, massive even for people of great power, indicating that if it wasn't designed for it specifically then providing accommodations for combatants of massive size had at least been a goal. Rectangular in design, situated in the middle of a circular structure, the arena was nearly half a mile long by a quarter of a mile wide.

Further study of the arena would show that the ceiling actually had discernable connecting points at various locations, indicating that it was removable. When needed, the surface could be parted and slid down, allowing the arena to be fully exposed to the sky above. The reason for this would be less than obvious, unless one was familiar with the race that inhabited this world.

The Saiya-jins were currently situated in the seats of the stadium, all of them on a single side of the arena. No fighters were found within the depths, quite the contrary, no one was to be found at all. Instead, all of their attention was focused on a single statue that was situated at the bottom of the ramp that would lead the chosen fighter down to his glorious battle.

The murmurs were quickly silenced as a soft red glow began to fill the statue, radiating outwards and covering the gathered race in a warm light. Energy seemed to flood through them in its presence, as well as a calming effect which brought about a state of peace rarely naturally felt for them.

From within the glow of the statue stepped forth a relatively short woman, glad in red dress and earrings, one of her most defining features being her long purple Mohawk. Such was the effect of her presence that the proud warrior race bent on their knee to her, something that they would have never considered for any other being in the universe…or any other.

After a short period, the lead Saiya-jin rose, easily discernable by is flame like hair with came down to a large widows peak. "My lady…my Goddess." He said slowly, questions in his mind but not daring to approach.

Questions that were sparked earlier in the day. Panic had swept through the entire race as they had all found themselves changed at one moment. Gone were their proud manes, their thick coats of hair. Gone was any calling towards their natural bestial forms, save the tails that they had formally wrapped around their waste. Royal command was not lost despite this panic, however, and order had been maintained. Royal command granted by a Goddess that was beloved by all was something that wouldn't be forsaken by this proud race.

But steps had to be taken. An call to assembly had been sent out. The leaders of each family had been required to come themselves or send someone in their place so that they might learn of the fate that had befallen their race. And of course the only person that they had trusted to guide them through this was the Goddess Tsukuyomi herself.

"My loyal and beloved race." She started, casting her gaze on each on them, her simple glance causing pride to swell through them. "I know why you have called to me on this night, and I know the uncertainty that fills you." Her words were chosen carefully, chosen to reflect the audience of her most beloved race. For a Saiya-jin was never afraid of anything.

"I have come to reassure this uncertainty, to tell you that it is not something that you should find yourselves upset with. Instead, you should feel it as an honor that has been granted to you." There were looks of slight doubt exchanged, but within the Goddess' presence even doubt was slight.

"Let this night be made one of legend, one that will be passed down and never forgotten. For on this night, great potential has been awakened within your race. Potential not freely given, however, but earned. Through great challenge and adversity will this new strength come to you. Though you are far weaker than you were before, you will find yourselves so much greater than you could ever have dreamed."

A look of strength came to her as a feeling of greatness swept through them, a feeling emanating from her but resounding within their very cores.

"I am talking of the power of the Super Saiya-jin, the power that the greatest of you will achieve. It is for your own protection that your powers have been sealed, that your potential unlocked instead." Images appeared within their minds, images of a gold haired fighter with powerful teal eyes, and strength that they could only dream of. "For if this power was merely handed to you, it would surely consume you." The image of the warrior suddenly exploded in gold light, the planet that he was standing on giving way and exploding, leaving nothing behind.

"For now I must go, my dear Saiya-jins. Take joy in all that I have revealed to you, and look towards the future with hope. Fight towards that goal, fight as you always have. You are the proudest race in the Universe, and your potential is unlimited. Never forget that, and never squander it away. The next time that I return, your destinies will be revealed."

And with that she stepped backwards into the statue, and the light slowly faded. The Saiya-jins began talking amongst themselves at her disappearance, some even breaking into spars to immediately start working towards their destiny. Back on his knees the King, Vegeta, was still revealing at the power that his race would eventually wield through the favor of their Goddess. Unbeknownst to any of them, however, was that they would never see their beloved Tsukuyomi again.


	2. Chapter 1

The ultimate realization of a legend long since foretold. The strongest fighter to ever be born. That's what he felt like when the light of the fusion had worn off, leaving him looking at his pink enemy. It had been funny. Before the fusion, the being before him had been the strongest in the universe. His power had dwarfed theirs to the point of there being no hope, to the point where even Vegeta's pride had taken a backseat and allowed them to do what needed to be done.

Even following the fusion, the difference in power was still a huge one. But the Saiya-jins power was only a base, only a fraction of their full potential. A flux that was innate to both Goku and Vegeta had been all it had taken to multiply his power by fifty times, and the creature before him that was more than twice the strength of even Goku's strongest form had been reduced to a child's toy by comparison. He had the ability to go even further beyond, but it was unnecessary and a waste of his time at this point. What was more was he was unsure the strain that such power would have on the world.

The fight had turned from a one sided slaughter to a massacre perpetrated solely by himself. He toyed around with the creature, part of him hoping that somehow there was some hidden power left within it, and the other part simply wanting the creature to understand the error of his way, to suffer for what it had done to his friends and loved ones. His final motivation was to allow the creature to think that its wit was the stronger, that in a moment of weakness it could take advantage of his folly.

Had things not worked out differently, this is exactly how things would have developed. But that was another time, another place. Instead his actions had been a true folly, rather than a fringed one. Buu's anger had grown quicker than his wit could keep up, and in a fit of rage and release of energy the very fabric of reality began to warp around him, to fold in on him.

It was that act that revealed Buu's true nature though. The fused warriors ability to sense ki allowed him to see Buu's twisting and turning with the natural ki around him, and he understood that Bibidi had been able to create such a powerful creature by tapping into the power of the universe itself. The only limitation to Buu's true strength had been how much power he had been able to weave into Buu's pattern.

Buu's rage began shattering that original limitation, began to open his pattern and channel more of the universes energy through himself. Vegeto could feel the power begin to raise, begin to approach his own level rapidly. For a moment he considered allowing it to happen, considered allowing the creature to reach his power so that he could have a true fight. But that moment was fleeting. Given but a few minutes Buu's power would eclipse even his own.

"Sorry." An apology muttered to his loved ones still trapped within Buu, and a flash of light left blue sparks dancing in his aura as he raised his hand towards the monster. If he was going to do it, he would leave no uncertainty to the action. Energy swirled from his body and down his arm, gathering in the form of a massively condensed blue ball. "Big bang..." he roared, channeling the attacks energy into a point, creating an instability, "Kamehameha!" the instability gave way, the energy that he was pouring into the ball escaping just as quickly and washing over the pink demons form.

It didn't take long, no more than a few moments, and then nothing remained. The fused warrior remained floating in the air, alone, his opponent vaporized and most everyone that he knew dead. A sigh escaped from his lips as he placed his fingers against his forehead, leaving the sky behind truly empty as he vanished.


	3. Chapter 2

The world had returned to normal, following. His teleportation had taken him to new namek, where he had used the power of their dragon balls to return the world to what it had been previous to the destruction that had been raised. His family and friends had been revived, but with it had brought newfound complications that he hadn't brought himself to deal with just yet.

It was why he was now standing on the Lookout, gaze cast over the skies of the world before him, other senses following the incoming power signals from those that had been his family in his previous lives. Even in his own mind he was still having difficulty adjusting, still trying to figure out how exactly the pieces of Kakarot and Vegeta fit together, so he wasn't sure if he could expect those that had been his families to make the transition any better.

One on one was how he had decided to handle things. He thought that would be best. Talk with them each separately, and then afterwards they could have each other for comfort depending on how things went. As they drew near he had removed himself to the inner lookout, taking his seat and awaiting what was to come. He didn't find himself waiting long however.

"Vegeto." It was Dende. Between him, Piccolo and Popo, transition on the lookout had been easy enough. While they all had fond memories of Kakarot, and less than so with Vegeta, none of them had any large attachments that found themselves much changed. There had been some awkwardness for the first few days, but it had quickly dissipated. He had even had a sparing session with Piccolo, though he found more enjoyment out of the fact that he was fighting rather than the fight itself.

"Gohan first." He said gruffly, slightly braced for what was to come. But his voiced lightened. "if you don't mind, Dende."

The Namek gave him an understanding smile and nodded before turning to leave. Gohan was the eldest of the children, and the one that would be best prepared to handle it. The other children looked up to him, and his mother would need the support. It was best to talk with him first.

His eyes shifted to the doorway as he heard footsteps stop outside, and after a moment a somewhat reluctant Gohan stepped through. His eyes lingered on Vegeto for a second, taking him in and seeing what he could of his father in him, before approaching and taking a seat crossed from the older man.

"Gohan..." He started, resolve seeing him through what might have been difficult, but a choked voice cut him off.

"I'm sorry." Gohan's eyes were diverted away, grief clear while looking down and towards the floor beside him. "If I hadn't been careless, had more control over the situation...things wouldn't have had to happen like this. I made the same mistake with Cell and cost you your life. And this time, I cost you your identity, both of your identities. I failed you."

A tear began to flow down, and within Vegeto he felt something turn, something click into place, and all of the reservations melted away. Regardless of how everything else fit together, he knew that the person sitting in front of him was his son, and that he was in pain. He stood and crossed to the younger man, crouching and hugging his head to his chest. "It's ok, son. Whatever else may come, I'm still your father, and I always will be." Gohan did something Vegeto didn't expect: he cried.

Eventually Gohan had regained his composure. They spent awhile talking after that, as Gohan sought to reconnect with this man who was now his father. But he found enough of Goku to be familiar with him, to find the connection easy. And while their were differences, the bond that they shared was enough to overcome it. Gohan left reassured knowing that while things would be different, it wouldn't necessarily be for the worst. But when he got outside and saw his mother and Bulma both present, both upset and looking away from everyone, he felt the weight return a little.

Following his fathers wishes, he directed Goten and Trunks to go in together.

This meeting had been much more light hearted. Trunks saw enough of his father in Vegeto to quickly get over any hesitations that he had, and Goten had never known his father to begin with. A small show of affection had turned Goten's shyness into his usual joviality, which in turn quickly elevated Trunk's solemn mood. All negative emotions completely melted away when they realized that this made them brothers.

After a few minutes of talking, the pair had simultaneously looked at each other and grinned, fusing themselves into Gotenks before Vegeto had really grasped what was going on. They had decided that as they were both kind of Vegeto's half sons, that made Gotenks his full fledged offspring.

They had shared a laugh and a short spar before the fusion wore off and Vegeto decided that it was time for them to go. They raced out the door, bouncing ideas off of each other about the best way to fuse their surnames.

That left the most troubling of his family situations to deal with, which was his wives...ex-wives...he wasn't sure. Technically, he wasn't married to either as a separate person than his halves, but there had been no divorces either...yet. Vegeto shook his head; it was a little more confusing than he'd rather think about.

He couldn't decide who he should see first, but knew that unlike with the kids he had to handle them one at a time. The problem was, he knew that whichever he chose to talk with first, the other would take it personally further complicating things. The only solution he had been able to decide on was to leave it vague. So he had asked Goten and Trunks to tell the next person to come in, figuring Bulma and Chi-Chi would decide for themselves which should be the first to come speak with him.

As he had suspected, Chi-Chi took the initiative and declared herself first. While he had expected her to storm in angry at everything, especially him, she instead approached calmly, and with a sad smile on her face. Chi Chi was a strong woman though, and it showed clearly; there was no reservation in her step.

"Son Goku..." She started but then stopped, shaking her head. "No, thats not right any more, is it? Vegeto, I think is what they said. I never thought that I would lose you quite like this, but...I lost you a long time ago, didn't I? Your spirit was always so care free, so light..." She trailed off. "Its a surprise that I was able to keep you at all, and I'm glad for the time that we shared."

He tried to speak up, but she just put a finger to his lips. "No. Theres nothing that really needs to be said. My husband died seven years ago. Even if that wasn't true, the part of you thats still attached to anyone is Vegeta to Bulma. Its ironic that its more in Vegeta's nature to commit than it was in Goku's." She leaned in and kissed him on the forehead before turning to leave. "I just came to say thank you to a stranger that saved the world, and my sons with it."

With that she was gone, and it was Vegeto's turn to shed tears.


	4. Chapter 3

AN: For those not familier with DB multiverse, I suggest you check it out. Google it. Read it. Enjoy.

* * *

Six months passed since then, and life began to return to normal. Bulma had welcomed him into her home, and Trunks was overjoyed to have him. Goten was over near every day regardless, so staying close to his other young son wasn't an issue. From an impartial standpoint, he had to consider himself a better father. The Vegeta in him made sure that he stayed around, and had the stern authority one should have. The Kakarot in him assured that it was well tempered with love, affection and a gentle hand.

He hadn't seen much of his eldest son these past months, though it wasn't due to any ill wishes between them. The world almost being destroyed again, loosing his own life as well as that of his love, it had reminded him what was most important. It hadn't come as a surprise to anyone when Gohan had gotten married but the following month. It also hadn't come as a surprise to Vegeto that despite his sons ever present trend towards knowledge and a lack of desire for power, he still occasionally felt the spike of his son training, maintaining his skill and growing at a slow pace.

That was something that bothered the eldest Saiya-jin, the last true remaining pure blood. In the past, Goku and Vegeta had always had each other to look forwards to fighting. Even if it was a rare occasion, it was just the possibility of a near equal challenge that drove them. To a Saiya-jin training and fighting came as naturally, almost moreso than, breathing. His power had saved the world, the universe, but by default that meant that nothing else was strong enough to do it. He had defeated the most powerful creature in existence, but it had come at a cost of fusing together the two people who's existence partially drove the advancement of the other.

It was mostly these facts that had caused him to plead with Enma to resurrect Buu as a good soul. A resurrected Buu would give him a new rival, someone to spar and fight with. At the present, he was resigned to sparing with Gotenks while in his base form, but despite the SSJ having twice his power, his two lifetimes of experience over the young warrior and his lack of a time limit rendered it still in his favor. Even so, the young punk occasionally surprised him.

It was not to be, however. Enma informed him with some distress that somehow the paperwork for his soul had been misplaced, and as a result so had he. Because of the manor he was destroyed, his physical pattern had been obliterated, but his spiritual concentration of energy had been lost. In practical terms, as Enma explained it, this meant that Buu couldn't be reformed, but there was an immense power loose. He was assured that they would find the paperwork soon and clean up the mess however.

So it had been with a feeling of foreboding that he had left back for earth, uncertain what the future would bring, but at the same time oddly excited by the prospect. If something were to happen, he would have it to look forwards to fighting. It was that prospect that gave him the encouragement to redouble his training efforts and lifted his spirits, even if he knew that even feeling slightly excited about a threat to the universe was inherently selfish.

It was shortly after this trip that he and Bulma had reconnected as a couple. They had done a little dance for awhile, something akin to flirting, before it finally fell into place. It was funny. Despite already knowing her intimately, having been married with her even, the presence of a mixed personality made it almost entirely new and exciting. And once it began, it was much more...complete. All of the romantic and bestial love and attraction that came from Vegeta found itself mixed with the friendship and companionship she had shared with Goku.

So it was with eyes on the uncertain future and body in the enjoyable present that he was able to start his new life. All things given, it was a pleasant beginning chapter.


	5. Chapter 4

Like a ripple, something was sent to start, something churned within the universe. Vegeto's raw power initially seemed as though a fluke, a random spike of energy. But his sustained existence caused the ripples to perpetuate. In essence, his raw power caused reality to shape itself in a different way than it would have had the fusion separated, or not existed at all. Because the universe always seeks some form of stability, and the purpose of all matter is to arrive at such a state. If a butterfly flapping its wings alters time, what then can be said of a being whose level of power defies reality itself?

* * *

To say that it had come to him in a dream was to speak the truth. For someone with his level of power his experience with the universe at large had been limited, his life had been short lived. But as he laid there, thinking over his short life for the millionth time, contemplating how maybe he could have handled things differently, cursing a few select names that had led to his undoing, and ultimately arriving at the conclusion that the true punishment of hell was spending eternity thinking over how pointless and flawed your life had been, that it was a state of existence of living in memories rather than forming new ones, the thought had arrived in his head.

Well. Not so much a thought as it had been a revelation.

There had been some confusion at first, not with the information itself but with its source. It was too perfect, promised him too many things. Lacking in explanation for its source, he had to contemplate the notion that maybe he had finally slipped into a state on insanity, and the revelation was merely a delusion come upon him. But the insane couldn't, by default, realize their insanity could they?

A shake of the head cleared his mind.

Insanity or not, the revelation had given him something that he had lacked for a long time. Purpose, hope. The prospect to take a shot at living again, the prospect of this time making sure that his life carried with it a meaning that would at least provide for more interesting thoughts, and the prospect for what he desired most of all; Revenge.

So it was that his mind was made up to go along with the thoughts, to take advantage of the knowledge that they offered. It mattered not that they may have been insane, may have been another power using him to their own ends. All of that could be dealt with in its own time. What mattered was that it was new, that it was something that he hadn't experienced, and that he was going to run for it even if there was nothing but a wall waiting for him.

----------------------------Three Years Later--------------------------------------

Vegeto emerged from the Room of Spirit and time, a reassuring hand resting on the shoulder of his son, Gotenks. Gotenks had aged well, his still young body more well defined by muscle mass, and his features further matching his father's with each passing year. A serious look was held in the young mans eyes that faded away to a content gaze upon the hand and his father, a slight grin coming to his features.

The thing that had aged most about Gotenks had been his personality. While there was still some hints of arrogance and brashness, Vegeto had done a fairly good job of beating most of it out of him these past few years.

To one not familiar with the situation, it may have seemed a situation of odd sorts to see Vegeto emerge from within this room given that both of his incarnations had previously made use of their full allotment of time, and given the normal state of things that sentiment was correct. However, two years ago Vegeto had realized the limitations that the world itself had, that his ever increasing power placed an increasing amount of strain on it. As such, he had made a wish to the dragon balls to create a separate allotment of time on the chamber, one that measured a daily limit.

The dragon's response had been a great deal of deliberation as he considered the limitations of his own powers and the natural laws ascribed by the dimensions itself. In the end, it was his conclusion that it was within his powers, but that the daily limit could not exceed more than 5 seconds. For practical purposes, this gave anyone that wished to use the facilities a daily allotment of a half an hour, which fit Vegeto's purposes perfectly as it allowed for his usual standard routine to be supplemented by half an hour of intensive each day.

This training came courtesy of Gotenks or Gohan whenever he was able to drag one or two of the three along, and when they wouldn't or couldn't, well, the second wish had been simpler; the intensification of the magnitude of the chambers environment depending on how far you got from the core. The dragon had found this task easy, and had retired back to his much needed slumber.

While his sons had initially been reluctant to train much, Gohan more so than the pair, they had heeded his warnings and increased their regimens. While it still wasn't up to his own intensity, he understood and valued the difference between a full blooded Saiya-jin, and his more diverse sons. Even so, as the situation began to grow darker, each of their training had began to increase.

What had originally started as Majin Buu's paperwork being lost had turned into an epidemic. As time went on, rather than being found, more paper work had gone missing. It had gotten to the point where the otherworld bureaucracy was almost unable to function, instead having to suspend most of their own proceedings to keep things in order. Foul play was of course suspected, but thus far no one had been able to place a finger on who or what was causing it. Even the Supreme Kai was at a loss for an explanation.

It was on this day that the plot would start to reveal itself, however, and that the destiny of the heroes would begin to shape. It was on this day that the consequences of the split reality would begin to make themselves apparent.

It started with a fluctuation that any and all ki sensitive people could detect. So overwhelming was the feeling that even Vegeto found himself on his knees beside his son, gripping his head as an overwhelming sense of ki flooded in from every direction. Such was the odd thing; the location of the ki wasn't a location at all, but everywhere at once.

As soon as the explosion of energy had began, it was over. Vegeto found his feet q uickly, looking around for the new threat that was surely upon them with anticipation. To his relief, and disappointment that he couldn't deny, there was nothing to be found, no hint of the power that he had previously felt on earth.

Vegeto's attention hadn't been the only one that had been grabbed, however.

'Vegeto!' It was a voice in his head, a sound familiar from a previous life. 'It's terrible! You need to come here right away!' Vegeto's response was to cast a glance at his two sons, who had been rendered unconscious by the magnitude of power in their base states, before placing his fingers to his head and concentrating for Kaio's Ki. His action was halted, however. 'Don't use instant transmission. I can't explain now, but your Kami can bring you to snake way. Come now!'

It goes without saying that Vegeto obeyed quickly, dropping his arm and finding Dende. The explanation was explained quickly, and Dende complied by using his position as Kami to bring Vegeto to Enma's desk. Words weren't spared as he was ogres rushing frantically around with paper work, even Enma himself lending a hand while only casting a glance and small nod and relieved gaze in Vegeto's direction. Seconds after his arrival, Vegeto was flying down the path to his greatest master.


	6. Chapter 5

The atmosphere on Kaio's planet was somber, to say the least. Even as Vegeto arrived his presence went unnoticed, the Kai attention focused elsewhere from himself, strain present on his features. It was odd to Vegeto to see that strain mixed with his usual worry, as usually the Kaio's ability to watch over his domain was a less than taxing affair.

"You said that there was a problem, Kaio?" Vegeto's duel voice called towards the distracted kai, earning a slight look of embarrassment as he turned to face the unnaturally powerful warrior.

"Yes, Vegeto. Desperate enough to call you to the Otherworld while you're still living. Desperate unlike anything we've ever faced, even compared to Majin Buu."

Vegeto's interest was peaked, and somewhere inside he felt excitement tingling away. It looked like he was going to get the fight that he wanted. "Very well. What is this new threat, and where do I go to face it?"

Kaio nodded, acknowledging Vegeto's resolve, having learned from dealing with just Goku that arguing with or warning him was fruitless; and that was before you considered the Vegeta present within him. Straight to the point would save him some wasted breath. "You are familiar with Cooler, Frieza's brother, correct?"

Vegeto nodded, a bit confused about where this was going. "That wimp? Yeah. Even at the time that I fought with him, he was pretty weak compared to me, even with his boosted last transformation. "

Kaio nodded once more. "Yes, well. He survived that battle thanks to his families innate ability to not have to breath in space. He spent some time drifting before being recovered and healed by remaining members of his organization. He had pride issues, Vegeto, but even he knew better than to stay in your area of the universe. Instead he focused his attentions elsewhere, too far out for you or your friends to bother interfering."

Another nod from the super warrior. "I see, but even so. If he's anywhere near the strength that he was, then the human fighters could take him down at great cost to themselves. I see how he could be considered a nuisance, but compared to myself or my sons he's hardly any threat to the universe; and he had nowhere near the power to cause whatever happened."

A stern look came across the Kaio's features. "Of course I know that, Vegeto. I usually have –some- idea of what's going on in my domain after all. No, everything taken into consideration, Cooler isn't a threat to anyone with you or your sons around under normal circumstances. However, things have shifted Vegeto."

A pause to insure that he had Vegeto's full attention, and then Kaio continued. "I'm sure that you felt it, the same as we Kai's did, when Buu lost himself in rage. It was as though his power and the universe around him had their powers intertwined. That's because they did, Vegeto. We were able to do some research and find his race. Long forgotten by all but the elder Kai, they were known as the Dijinn, and despite their incredible regeneration and ability to absorb others, they were hardly strong fighters."

"I thought something was off with Buu. With the Daikaioshin within him, his power should have been a combination of his natural power and that. Even the separated fat buu should have been significantly more powerful than he was."

"Correct. The vast majority of the "good" buu that battled his evil half had most of his power come from Daikaioshin, with just a little coming from his actual race. When you consider that, and consider that the evil buu was still the stronger, you have to wonder where that power came from. It had us at a loss. After all, the good buu should have been a combination of Daikaioshin and the Dijinn race, while the evil buu should have simply had the power and abilities of the race itself."

"Majin." Vegeto said simply.

"Right, once again. When buu expelled his evil, he also expelled his tie to his Majin power, and I assure you that despite his boosting, babidi wasn't half the sorcerer that his father was. He found the spell and understood how to use the Majin ability, but he had no idea –how- the ability worked, and the results suffered from it. The true power of Majin is far more frightening than we had suspected, however."

Despite himself, Vegeto felt a slight grin come to him. If Kaio noticed, he decided against mentioning it.

"The true power of Majin rewrites the basic fabric of a persons makeup. It ties their pattern into the very universe itself, and lets that power flow through them. Suddenly the persons potential changes from their own limitations to the limitations of the amount of the universe that they are able to channel through themselves. Of the races available at the time, so long ago, the Dijinn were the most suited to the power. Their astounding regeneration coupled with their malleability and absorption made them near indestructible and ever adaptable. However, they lacked something that some current races possess."

Vegeto gave it a moment of thought before he took the statement into light of recent events. "The ability to truly transform."

"Yes. The Dijiin race takes on part of the person it absorbs features, but its not a true transformation. Not like the Saiya-jins and the Ice-jins. Your races ability to transform into an entirely new existence of your own volition in response to and in order to harvest and increasing amount of power isn't something that's been around in existence for very long. That's why even kaioshin was surprised at your sheer level of power. And its also why someone with that ability would find themselves far more dangerous with the true Majin ability than the Dijiin."

Vegeto felt a chill run through him, a chill of excitement. Of all the people he had faced, Frieza had carried with him perhaps the greatest amount of emotional impact for both Vegeta and Kakarotto. To face someone of his race, someone of his race that might even be able to beat him…

"Which means that what we felt was Cooler becoming possessed by the Majin ability. But how?"

Kaio shook his head with slight annoyance. "We're not sure yet on the specifics. What we suspect, though, is that when you destroyed Buu in the state that he was in, the Majin curse found itself scattered through the tapestry of the universe. Even with that form destroyed, some part of Buu lived on as an incorporeal…plague, is the best way of putting it.

Vegeto turned his attention to the universe. Similar to how from Kami's lookout one had a illogical vantage point over the entire world, from Kaio's planet one had the same vantage over his entire domain. From there, it was easy to spot the swirling dark ki of the possessed Cooler. Without much response, he placed his fingers to his forehead. "Well. Not much reason to wait. I'm off."

The Kai's response was quick. Though to the true Saiya-jin's eyes it was as though in slow motion, the action itself was enough to catch his attention and halt his transmission. Kaio smacked his fingers away from his head.

"You can't use instant transmission any more. Not until we're positive that every trace of Buu has been wiped from existence. The technique allows you to near instantly move from any one spot to another, with a glaring weakness that's impossible to take advantage of. In order to function, it reduces you to a state that you're a mass of individual energy components small enough to slip through space and time itself. But, as mentioned, while in this state, none of yourself is even a fraction of the strength of an ordinary human."

"Meaning that while the Majin curse is intertwined with reality itself, he is in the unique position to take advantage of an otherwise perfect technique." Vegeto finished for him.

Kaio nodded. "Yes. If you use instant transmission, there is a small, but significant chance, that the Majin curse would be able to take full hold of you. I don't think I need to tell you what that would mean for the universe."

Vegeto shuddered slightly as he saw himself tearing everything asunder, and then bowed his head slightly. "Cooler moved so far beyond our space to stay outside of our attention. Even with our fastest ship, it would take me at least a year to get there. What if I had the dragon transport me with a wish?"

The Kaio shook his head. "That's something that you people never understood about the dragon, though truly no one knew except the Elder Kaio who recognized its abilities as something far older than the Namekian race. The dragon is essentially a combination of all knowledge in the universe, its power and ability to utilize which is based on some multiple of its channel, which is the person that creates it. I assure you that anything that it can do someone else, be it race or individual, has had the ability to do at some point. If you were to wish to be somewhere, it would likely use the instant transmission technique on you in order to transport you there."

"And we'd be in the same boat that I was originally." He gave a slight, gruff, sigh and turned to leave.

"Very well then. It's not as if I hadn't had to take long journeys through space before."

"Will you be taking your sons with you?" Kaio's question being an obvious one.

Vegeto shook his head as he walked away. "Not this time. We've made that mistake before, and while we haven't paid for it, I'm not letting this be the first time. No, its better that I leave the brats on Earth to protect it while I'm out saving the universe. Like a part of me once said, I'm not always going to be around. They have to learn to take some responsibility for their world on themselves."


	7. Chapter 6

His sons had taken the news as he had expected them to, and had agreed to up their training until the situation was dealt with in order to protect the world in his absence. That left him with a good feeling of relief; of their old villains, cooler was the strongest still living. The odds were that asides from him, his sons should be able to handle anything else that crawled out of the woods works Majin curse or not.

A change in plans that he had been unable to avoid was that Bulma had demanded on coming with him. In her usual fashion, it had become an issue of "Either I'm coming or you can't use my ship" and despite many hours of arguing, he had to allow her to come. His primary argument had been, of course, the danger, but her counter had been her experience on Namek. His argument that Cooler would be many times stronger than Frieza hadn't mattered as it was about the same feat for either to kill her.

He'd been entirely satisfied with her reasons, though. She had told him that she wished to come because her entire youth had been spent adventuring, and that her current, calm, relaxed life was starting to bother her. "I was Goku's partner in crime for almost half of his life. I was the wife of Vegeta, and now I'm the wife of Vegeto. If you think I'm content to stay at home playing house wife while your out gallivanting around the universe, you've got another thing coming."

It was thus that Vegeto had found himself far from the blue orb of Earth, alone except for the company of his wife. What time that he didn't spend training was spent with her, engaging in all affairs that the married couple should be expected to engage in. This time that he spent with her caused him to start picking up on the fact that her age was getting to her, and he suspected that she had wanted to come so that she could have one last big adventure before retiring to a more dull life.

She did what she could for him during the journey. She had tweaked the gravity chamber as much as she could, but it wasn't enough. Where as her peak technology had been able to only dwindle behind Vegeta's needs at a slow rate, Vegeto's exponential leap in power had left in in the dust, and what it could provide for him was somewhat minimal. Coupled with the ship itself unable to take the strain of him training any even full power in his SSJ state, and he found his overall growth somewhat hindered by the trip.

To supplement his training, he had taken to remaining permanently at the SSJ2 state. Like they had mastered SSJ before the Cell games, he decided with his limited ability to train doing the same thing with SSJ2 would have been idle. One would have suspected it would have happened before the Buu event, but otherworld made maintaining forms much less draining in Kakarotto's case, and Vegeta hadn't experienced the necessary emotional response to transform until shortly before the Tournament.

With neither of his lifetimes having had the chance to gain mastery over the form, he decided that it was the best use of his time.

* * *

Six months later found Vegeto half way to his destination, and in a dimension separated from our own found a tall proud raven haired warrior squaring off against a much shorter fighter dressed in a small vest and white pants, his most distinctive feature being massively long golden hair that spiked down to the back of his knees.

Without a pause, both warriors shot forwards, the older warriors left leg spinning around to catch the side of the younger fighters head. Gotenks wasn't so inexperienced, however, and stopped his brothers leg with the back of his left forearm. His response was to throw his fist forwards and release a near point blank ki blast towards the other fighters face.

Gohan had been in motion since before his attack had connected, and used the focal point of the attack for leverage to twist his body around and allow the blast to pass just under his face as his right foot continued forwards to catch Gotenks in the side of the face and send him sprawling away.

A thin trickle of blood dripped down the young fighters mouth as he caught himself on his hands and somersaulted away, dropping into a crouch as he landed on his feet and preparing to charge again. Before he could, however, the strain of the SSJ3 state wore on him and it suddenly split leaving a worn Trunks and Goten behind.

In response, Gohan allowed his power level to dissipate, dropping his hair back slightly but otherwise causing little shift in his appearance.

"Better, Goten, Trunks." He said with a smile towards the small warriors.

Truth be told, Gotenks in his SSJ3 form was slightly more powerful than him at this point, due to his own training having been lacking. While he wasn't going about it as lazily as he had after the cell games, before the real threat of the Majin curse had become apparent the boys had put his own training to shame. As such, they had been able to close the gap, though just barely.

Even so, he had more than enough experience to negate the power difference, and Gotenks time limit in SSJ3 was a serious disadvantage during the fights.

"Yeah!" The boys said in unisen, giving each other a high five. They had been able to hold the transformation for six minutes rather than the usual five by managing the massive drain caused by SSJ3 better. "We landed a few good hits on you this time, and the transformation lasted longer to!"

Gohan rubbed a tender spot on his chest that he was sure was going to be developing into a deep bruise later. "You sure did. You boys are doing great job. Why, just another hundred years and you might even be able to beat me"

The boys shared a laugh between the three as the exited the doorway back into the realm of their own world, one that died on their lips as they came face to face with a rather serious looking Namek.

"Gohan. Kids." He said with a slight nood before his eyes settled on the eldest of the three. "Theres been some kind of disturbance on Namek. We've lost contact with them, and because of the disruptions Kaio isn't able to see whats going on. I'm going to borrow a ship and head over there to check it out."

Gohan nodded. "Alright. Just let me head home and let Videl know whats going on and I'll come with you. With the two of us, it shouldn't be a problem."

Piccolo shook his head. "No Gohan, not this time. This is your world, and with Vegeto gone you and the kids have to watch over and protect it. Namek is my world, and its my responsibility to deal with it."

Gohan wanted to object, but instead nodded. He knew what this meant to his old mentor, and chose not to object. Rather, he closed the distance and hugged the Namek, much to his startled surprise. When he recovered, Piccolo raised his arm hesitantly and patted Gohan on the back. "I'll see you again soon, Gohan."

With that, Piccolo was off, leaving Gohan, Trunks and Goten standing outside the room of spirit and time.


	8. Chapter 7

Purpose is what defines a persons life. Weather its for the thrill of the challenge, or if its to make yourself better every day than the one before; maybe its to protect your friends and loved ones, or maybe its just because its all you've known since the day you were born, passed on to you by your fathers before you. Whatever the reason, the purpose that defines your life is what drives your actions, and what drives your actions gives you the strength and power to rise above.

* * *

"We're almost there." A soft, female voice said from behind.

"Yeah. Looks like this is going to be a good fight." Was the calm response.

"Your shaking. Are you alright?" Concern was evident in her voice.

"Its excitement. Nothing more." He raised a hand to his head and shook it slightly. "No, thats not entirely true. I'm excited, but I'm also worried for you, and everyone else if I fail. We don't know what I'm up against."

Her arms wrapped around him from behind, pulling him close and holding him for a few minutes. "You won't fail. That thoughts never crossed any of our minds."

He smiled back at her and turned, kissing her on the forehead. "Of course. I am the Saiya-jin prince, after all."

"Mmm. That you are, Vegeto. Though I think thats the first time I've heard you call yourself that."

"I had been debating if it was my right to do so. But I do have royal blood in my veins, and am the most power Saiya-jin to ever have existed. If anyone has the right to the claim, its me."

She rubbed his head. "Of course, my highness."

He kissed her again before pushing her away. "Alright, times running short. Like we discussed, we're going to drop your escape pod off on this planets moon so I'm not taking any chances. If I get beat, turn on its cloaking and use its fuel reserves to start yourself back to earth, got it?"

She nodded, but he could see the brief flash of uncertainty in her eyes, uncertainty that was quickly replaced by confidence. "Right. But you won't lose, and I'll be waiting for you here when you come back."

* * *

The planet was desolate, empty. There was no life to be found, only a rocky, barren land devoid of anything one could consider living. The presence of oxygen, however, indicated that not long before it had once been full of at the very least oxygen producing plants. It was as though everything that would obstruct the coming fight had been removed for that purpose.

Or that had been Vegeto's thought at first. But it proved to be an incorrect one. As he flew across the planet, arriving on the other side of the planet, the one that had been hidden from his sight in orbit and where he felt a rapidly increasing power source. What he found caused his eyes to raise and his breath to catch for a moment.

Hovering before the full sun that was high in the sky, tendrils of ki were twisting like a storm from the nuclear light, radiating and washing over the Ice-jin, who was in his final form, little different about him save an M on his forehead. Energy radiated from him, his power gaining a massive boost from the life of the sun. No, the life of everything that had been present. Vegeto felt sick to his stomach at the thought.

The Ice-jin took notice of him, and took notice of the disgust on his face. Dark laughter came forth from him. "Thats right, my dear Saiya-jin. We learned something about you abilities. We've learned from your past fights. The ability to take a little energy from everyone for one large attack...we've bent it to our own purposes. All the life in the universe, all the energy in the universe, it will eventually be ours."

The tendrils stopped flowing into him, the power coming to fruition with a sudden flash of light that made Vegeto wince and close his eyes momentarily.

"But for now, the energy that I have taken from this planet, and the energy that I have eaten of this star, it shall be enough for our purposes of dealing with you."

Cooler's form vanished from sight and before Vegeto could brace himself he was kicked across the landscape, crashing and skidding through hills and mountains, coming to rest several miles from the point of impact.

He grunted as he stood and rubbed his head, golden aura flaring to life as the Super Saiya-jin transformation took place instinctively as his opponent once again appeared before him, lancing out right a right hook. Vegeto's response was to grab the limb with both of his hands and flip the Ice-jin up and around, slamming him into the ground beside him before throwing a small ki blast to seal the deal.

From the smoke a fist crashed into into Vegeto's gut causing him to double over slightly, and energy flared to life in the hand blasting him across the landscape once more. Vegeto's hands braced the ground as his momentum carried him on, using it to flip himself and use his momentum to flip into a crouch. As he slid across the ground he pulled energy from his body into his hands forming a small ball of extremely condensed ki on each finger.

His hands flicked out, releasing the wave of ten small blasts at the closing Ice-jin. Caught off guard, the combined blast consumed him in a massive explosion of light and smoke.

However, as the obscuration cleared, Cooler was left floating in the air above a small crater, mild bruises and burns covering his body but no serious damage having been inflicted.

"For someone who is the fusion of two of the supposed strongest warriors in the universe, you are surprisingly weak." He spat.

"For someone who is supposed to be the strongest in his family, who boosted to be the strongest in the universe, your surprisingly worthless. Thats not counting the whole giving in to the Majin power just to be within spitting distance of me."

The Ice-jin laughed darkly. "Is that why you haven't changed into either one of your more powerful forms? Because you think that this is all I have?"

Vegeto raised his eyebrows. "All you have? I certainly hope not. I didn't come a year out of my way for someone as boring as you."

Another laugh from the other warrior. Vegeto had to admit that as they were going out it right now, the Ice-jin was indeed stronger than him. The Majin powerup along with the energy he gained from all of the life forces he had absorbed was incredible, letting him be stronger than even Vegeto at SSJ. But his SSJ2 form would crush the Majin regardless of what power he was holding back, speaking nothing of his SSJ3 form.

As if on cue dark energy swirled around the Majin, tendrils of lightning, ki and raw energy from the sun rushing around him in a torrential storm. It took a few moments, all the while he felt the Ice-Jins power spike at a rapid race. One standard explosion later left him revealed once more.

It was incredible, Vegeto thought, how many transformations seemed to be availible to the Ice-jins. Surpassing the form that was already beyond what Freiza had thought was the final, elongated blades were perhaps the largest change. Extending from his wrists and elbows, a pair of blades on each arm curved back and ran parallel to the bones. His knees were sharpened to a point, and similar blades protruded from the back of his ankles. The final change was that the four spokes of his mask like face were sharpened and curved back and around his head, almost like four spiky dreadlocks.

Vegeto's eyes lost track of the ability to keep up the the Ice-jin in the form. He had just registered the transformation and then he was face down in the dirt a fourth the way around the planet, his back bloody and burned from the powerful energy blast he had just been on the wrong end of. Even so...

Vegeto stood and dusted himself off, scowling up towards the Majin who was just slowly floating towards him. "Impressive." He sighed and popped his neck. "Even so, you should have finished me off with that attack, though I doubt your ability to do so." He smiled and tensed slightly, letting his aura explode around him. "Because you see, I'm still better than you." With a roar, lightning crackled through his aura, and his hair spiked beyond its normal tone.

He smiled towards his opponent. "You see, you should feel lucky you get to see this form. As a matter of fact, outside of my wife, your the first person to have the privileged. Its a real honor."

The possessed Ice-jin growled with rage and charged forwards, matching the arrogant Saiya-jin blow for blow. To describe every detail of the battle to follow would be something of an exercise of futility, for it raged for several hours after. To say the least, every Ki-sensitive in the universe felt each and every blow, and all but a few quaked with absolute terror and disbelief.

However, for those able to not be overwhelmed by the sheer magnitude of power, it became apparent that the dark ki was very slowly dwindling while the golden Ki that had started equal to it seemed to hold at the same place. Of course, the truth was, Vegeto turned out to have enough power to maintain that level despite the drain of the ongoing fight, partially because of the training with the state that he had put himself through this past year.

In the end...

A lightly wounded, but mostly uninjured Vegeto stood overlooking a battered and bruised Cooler, a smirk clearly spread crossed his features.

One of the Ice-jin's eyes was bruised and swollen over, and several cuts were bleeding across his body. In one of the extraordinarily rare occasions in Z warriors carriers, it was the bad guy who found himself completely on the ropes from the beginning.

But then a smirk spread across his face, and he raised his arm up above his head. "We've had fun, but now play times come to an end." It was though he was charging for a death ball, but all of the energy was condensing into a spot no larger than a basketball. Vegeto's guess was that he was sacrificing mass for penetration power, taking advantage of his lack of regeneration.

"Your right. I've had my fill of this little spar. Its time that you go to the otherworld, and I'll make sure that you find your way there this time. Good bye, little Ice-jin. Its been fun."

Vegeto braced his arm out in front of him as he gathered energy around it before placing it at his side and settling into a stance resembling a Samurai ready to unsheathe his sword. If nothing else, taking on a form of combat that he hadn't extensively trained in was a fairly good indication of how Vegeto viewed the fight at this point.

Without a word spared, both fighters launched themselves forwards, the Ice-jin thrusting his hand forwards and releasing his ball of energy at the same time Vegeto "unsheathed" his energy sword. A fraction of a second later revealed them with their backs towards each other, Coolers body splitting in half with an explosion of blood and gore.

"You missed." Vegeto smirked as he walked over to the fallen tyrant, looking down at him with something like pity. "Part of me wants to let you suffer, but I think I'll just put you out of your misery."

The laughter surprised him. Over coughs of blood, the Ice-jin continued to laugh at him before whispering a barely audible tone. "So...arrogant. You let all that power go to your head. Your pride is your downfall. We didn't miss. It was never our intention to beat you, merely to draw you out here."

Vegeto's attention raced skyward, his ki sense reaching out and detecting the massively condensed ball of energy racing towards this planets star. His eyes widened as he realized what was going to happen. His reaction was a roar of rage as he twisted around and took to the sky, blasting Cooler into oblivion as he did so.

There was no time to get to the ship, no time to do anything other than shield himself with Ki and hold his breath, launching himself into the void of space between the world and the moon, landing nearby Bulma's escape pod as the energy bolt exploded in the core of the star causing it to instantly go super nova and blast outwards consuming all in its path.

Vegeto flared his aura out to protect Bulma's pod, pumping his energy to the max as the sun washed over them, obliterating the moon around them. After a few moments, the artificial super nova gave way and collapsed in on itself, pulling the entire solar system in on itself and swallowing them in a small black hole.


	9. Chapter 8

A/N: Generally, for the most part, this story focuses on the heroes on earth, and the more plot important elements. More explicit details, interactions and the side stories of a few characters your going to find yourself curious about will be handled in one-shots and separate stories. Keep in mind when reading this chapter that I'm a fan of minimal power increases between the years, and the power levels in my fic represent this. For comparison purposes, Goku's base during the Buu saga is set at about 5x his base when he first went SSJ. Your free to disagree, of course, but its how it is here.

* * *

Its been five years since the earths greatest warrior had been lost. It was impossible to miss his massive Ki suddenly vanishing, and the heroes of the earth had feared the worst. However, Enma reported that Vegeto had not passed through the Otherworld checkout, indicating that he was still alive. Hopeful, the warriors of Earth had gathered together the dragon balls to wish him back to the planet, but the dragon himself had been unable to find him.

Seeking advice, they had turned to the Supreme and Elder Kai. Between the two of them, they were able to lay out two possibilities. The first was that Vegeto had been utterly consumed, not even his energy or soul able to return from the depths of the massive gravity well. In normal cases, this would have been the only possibility. However, there was an alternative. The second possibility was that with his extreme power, he was able to protect himself even from the might of the all consuming hole. It was possible that the altered space-time there had given way, causing Vegeto to spill into another dimension.

In some sense, the Eternal Dragon was something like a collective subconscious of everything that had ever been known or was currently known within the universe. As such, even his power would be unable to detect or even affect Vegeto should this be the case. As Bulma was unable to be found either, she more than likely had shared whatever fate Vegeto had.

The warriors of Earth, especially his sons, held the hope that the latter was true, but had to carry on with the knowledge that either way, there was the very real possibility that he would never be returning to them.

To that end, all of them fully took up training. With the Earth's greatest defender gone, that burden fell on their shoulders, as Goku had told his son a long time ago. It was a memory that Gohan held bitterly, wondering if he had continued training like he should have...would things have turned out differently?

For his part, Gohan had become the strongest warrior on the planet, while maintaining his scholarly standards. It had cut into other areas of his life, but he had still been able to find time for his wife, and more recently, his daughter pan, who was already proving to have a great deal of potential all her own.

His younger brothers had taken the loss of their father hard. Trunks previous loss of a father had almost been non-existent before the void was filled, and Goten hadn't ever experienced the loss at all. They had taken it personally, and despite having no reason to believe so, had blamed themselves. Their response had been to train as much and as hard as they could. As a result, they went from being near 1/10th Gohan's base power to 1/6th. He found their rate of growth incredible, and as a result, their fused form was much more powerful as well.

It was remarkable, really. Despite being 6 times their individual strength, the way the fusion multiplied their power and their increase in strength had made it so their SSJ2 form was almost a match for his full power, and their SSJ3 completely blew him out of the water. He found it somehow fitting, though. A single persons progress would never be able to match pace with the combination of two others, let alone a multiplied factor of that.

Goten and Trunks had learned no to rely of the power of the third level, however. It was a fickle mistress indeed, and any fight against an equally skilled opponent would easily outlast the limit of time that it imposed. And, truth be told, Gohan looked forwards to the day that was soon to come when Gotenks SSJ2 was more powerful that all his power. It was that day that he could relax a little, return to his studies a little more and truly leave the mantel of protector of the planet on the boy's shoulders.

Capsule cooperations management had returned back to Bulma's father. Despite getting along in the years, he was capible of doing the job and, while Trunks wasn't otherwise training, was passing on everything he knew to his grandson. It was looking like some time in the near future, Trunks and Goten's generations would be inheriting the full load of the previous.

But, inheriting that mantle of responsibility of course meant inheriting all of the problems that came with it, and as was the course for this universe, that trouble was just around the corner. For Vegeto had easily dealt with the strongest incarnation of the Majin curse, but the curse itself was still out there. Similarly, all contact with Piccolo had been lost shortly after he had landed on his home planet. Despite being worried, the state of the universe was dark enough that neither Gohan nor the teens could risk their own planet to check on him.

They knew he was alive, however, due to a wish made when Vegeto couldn't be wished back. The dragon confirmed that he couldn't be resurrected due to not being dead, and he couldn't be brought back to Earth due to being unwilling to do so. They had left it at that and trusted in Piccolo to be able to take care of himself.

There was no crackle, no grand explosion or display to signal the arrival of their next challenge. There was simply the communication from Kaio, explaining that Gohan should come to Otherworld and speak with Lord Enma. Being the hero he was, Gohan had complied without hesitation, and had met with the leader of the check in station, which is where we pick back up.

"Lord Enma." Gohan said with a slight nod, his usual humor and cheerfulness currently displaced due to the obvious severity of what was going on. The universe had been in a dark mood since the Majin curse had been released, like a curtain of dread constantly fell over everything.

"Good of you to come, son of Goku." Enma responded from high on his desk. It was common knowledge that the otherworld had been in a bad way. Some dark force had been interfering with everything going on with the check in and management of souls, and as a result, many of the universes greatest threats had managed to slip through the cracks.

"You know the situation that we've been facing down here." He continued. "And unfortunately, its gotten worse. I'm afraid that the Majin curse found its way even here, and corrupted the soul recycling device." He paused and looked at Gohan, noticing the curious look on his face. Realizing that the mortal had little idea about the intricacies of the life and death cycle, he decided to let him in.

"As you know, when a person dies, its soul travels here. In the case of those exceptionally pure of soul, they are allowed to experience paradise until such time as they wish to return to the cycle of reincarnation. Warriors who have proven themselves are allowed to stay in these lower realms with other warriors, and like those in heaven may do so until they wish to pass on. Neutral souls are simply returned to the cycle once they arrive... and then there are the evil souls."

He shook his head. "Which is where the problem comes in. A soul that has become corrupted through its time living can't simply be returned to the cycle, for two reasons. The first and most obvious is punishment. It would hardly be fitting if a corrupted soul simply got returned with no retribution. The second is cleansing. Once the soul has experienced enough torment, its put into the soul recycle, where its broken down and released back into the living universe."

Gohan nodded, following along. "Which is why father was allowed to keep his body, and why Vegeta would have been recycled immediately rather than keeping his body or going to hell after sacrificing himself to stop Buu. He redeemed himself from his corruption, but was still to stained to warrant special treatment."

Lord Enma nodded. "Correct. Its also why your mother spent her time in heaven while she was dead."

Gohan scratched his head. "If thats the case though, why do you let those in hell keep their powers? I understand that most of them are weak criminals, but in the case of villains like Frieza and Cell, they could pose real problems. Not to mention the Saiya-jins." Gohan shuddered to think about an army of hell bound super saiya-jins.

Another nod from the giant lord. "Its not as easy as taking their power, unfortunately. Energy doesn't come from nowhere, Gohan. Believe or not, there is ultimately a finite amount of it in the universe. Through training, transformations and power ups, a person binds to their soul latent energy. The only way to free that energy from a soul is through the recycling process. Once the souls identity has been broken down, all of their energy is unbound and freed up. Similarly, if your killed while your dead, all that happens is your identity is lost and energy scattered in the same manor as recycling."

Gohan frowned. It seemed like it would be a better idea to simply recycle powerful villains from the get go. He understood that it would hardly be fair for someone like Freiza to receive no punishment, but it seemed safer.

"The villains that you have faced during your lifetime have been some of the strongest to ever exist. However, there are some safe guards in place. For one, there is no latent energy in hell, so its impossible for a soul there to bind any more strength to itself. I assure you that Frieza and Cell are still at the strength they were when you sent them there."

A slight grin crossed his features. "Well, thats not so bad then." He pressed his knuckles against each other. "It might be fun to drop in on them while I'm here then."

Enma chuckled. "If you can find them, you'll be doing better than we are. At any rate, theres one more safe guard that you should be aware of..." An explosion seemed to rock the entire foundation of the building, sending even the large Enma tumbling to the ground, a thud sounding as he cracked his head on the edge of the desk.

After a few moments, the tremor was over, and he picked himself off the ground, rubbing the slightly swelling spot.

"It seems like the explanations are going to have to wait." He pointed outside towards the famous snake way. "Out there. Jump off the edge and you'll find yourself in hell. Be careful Gohan. All of the energy that was being recycled has been pulled together into a wrapper of Majin curse. It will be extraordinarily dangerous at best."

Son Gohan nodded and without another word walked out the door for snake way. In his office, Enma tuned his screen to focus on hell so that he could keep an eye on things.

* * *

As was the way of things, timing was everything. And the timing on the days events were rather terrible. That depended on ones point of view, however. From the eyes of the villain, it would seem that todays timing was rather perfect.

At present, Goten, Trunks, Yamcha and Krillan were gathered on the lookout, standing beside a worried looking Dende. He had called them there not because anything had happened just yet, but because he felt an odd disturbance in the world. It was the nature of his position of Kami that he was more in tune with the ebb and flow of the worlds Ki than any of them could be, and he was certain that he felt a dark tint gathering within it.

"Ah. He's ready." Dende said after a few moments, before vanishing from there sight momentarily. When he returned, he had his hand gripped to the arm of a tall three armed warrior that they all knew well, a short white being sitting on his shoulder.

"Tenshinhan!" Krillian shouted, running up to the taller warrior. "How was it?"

Tenshinhan smiled down at the monk, as Dende let go and Chotzu floated off and to the side a bit. "It went well Krillan. The Otherworld's training was intense as ever. Its a shame that you and Yamcha came back as soon as you had your potentials unlocked, you really missed out."

Yamcha walked up to stand beside Krillan. "We can tell by you Ki. Your as strong as Gotenks base back during the whole Buu deal. Its pretty impressive. But we both had families that we had to get back to. Don't think we've been slacking off though. We're not as strong as you, but we're still a lot stronger than we were."

Tein nodded. "Well, you know. We can't always depend on the Saiya-jins to protect the planet." He noticed Trunks and Goten standing a little ways off. "No offense boys. Us humans just have to stand on our own feet now and again."

Trunks response was a grunt and a shrug, and Goten just grinned at him. "None taken uncle Ten."

As if on cue, Dende felt the dark fluxes start pulling together, and after a few minutes two rifts opened, one on each side of the planet. Both powers, Dende was familiar with, at least in passing.

Wait...three powers. He couldn't feel any life, but the dark Ki of the Majin curse was in some second vessel there.

"Do you feel that guys?" It was Trunks who first spoke.

"Yeah, that one feels like...our dads and Mr. Piccolo, and all of the warriors here." He looked around at all of them.

"Must be Cell." Krillan said, walking to the edge of the lookout to peer down. "It feels like he's the exact same strength he was during the Cell games." He smiled back at the teens. "Shouldn't be a problem at all for Gotenks."

The pair nodded at him. "We don't know who that other Ki is, though." They said in unison.

"Frieza." Krillan said again, a slight burning feeling in his chest. It looked like he was going to be able to get some revenge. "Unlike Cell, though, he's a whole lot stronger than he was the last time we saw him."

Trunks nodded. "He's defiantly weaker than that Cell guy still, but he's still about the same strength as Goten's SSJ2. I don't think you three can beat him. Gotenks should be able to take him out almost instantly, and then we can move on to that Cell guy."

Krillan shook his head, while Yamcha and Tein just smiled. "No, we've got this one kids. Trust us a little more than that. Besides, I've got a little bit of a grudge with him."

Trunks looked a little skeptical but shrugged. "Fine. Don't make us have to wish you back." He looked over at Goten. "You ready?"

Goten smiled and nodded, assuming the position. "Fu..." Part one of a silly little dance. "...sion....." Part two of a silly little dance. "...Ha!" The finale, and one flash of light later Vegeto's true son, Gotenks, was standing before him. "I'll be over to help after I finish up with this wimp." And then the fused warrior was off.

"You ready for this guys?" Tein asked his fellow Earth warriors.

"Of course. Lets show him what Earthlings are made of!" Yamcha said as he through his arm up in the air, being the first one to take off towards the dead tyrant.


	10. Chapter 9

Smooth and polished, like an oversized Porcelain doll, the tyrant floated over a flat gracy plain, arms crossed before his chest and a bored look on his face. It was perhaps odd that he was without his cybernetics, but by the same token the humans weren't surprised. It would have been a bigger stretch of reason if his cybernetic components had remained in a world where his being was that of energy rather than matter.

The three warriors touched down before the tyrant, who gazed on them lazily before looking past them. It seemed as though he cared little about their presence. That or he simply wasn't impressed. It was a change from what they remembered of him, but the years in hell had probably taken their toll. He wouldn't be the same that he was.

"Where are the monkeys?" He asked darkly, gaze returning to look at the three.

"Busy with more important things than you." Yamcha's reply.

Freeza growled. "I have spent the last few decades with nothing more to do than contemplate my defeat and death and the hands of those monkeys. And now that I'm back, I'm going to kill them, and then this planet will become the seat of my new empire."

A breeze kicked up roughing the clothing of the three earthlings as they powered up slowly, Tenshinhan letting his cloak free to float away as the three of them settled into a fighting stance. "This is our planet, and we'll be making sure that doesn't happen." The three said in unison.

* * *

Elsewhere on the planet a lone fighter was touching down before the green menace from the past. However, there was something unusual about the situation. The bio-android was standing in the back, looking slightly disgruntle. Before him, an old looking man stood before them, odd cybernetics covering various parts of his body. A grin was set on his face.

"Hm. So this is the product of a fusion, interesting. Goten and Trunks, I would think. You'll make interesting test subjects."

"And your doctor Gero." Replied the mixed voice of the dual warrior. "One of our mothers told us about you. Tell me doctor, you couldn't beat Vegeta so many years ago, and we're far stronger than he was. What possible chance do you think you have against the great Gotenks?"

"Because while the after life doesn't seem to have agreed with my -perfect-" he spat "creation, it gave me ample time to plan new designs, which I was able to quickly assemble once I returned. As a result, I am far stronger, and as a result..." He pressed a button, and four devices sounding Gotenks suddenly lit up before projecting an energy bubble around him. "That fusion only lasts 15 minutes."

Gotenks threw himself against the wall and beat it with everything he had, but the bubble held. With a growl he shot to SSJ3 and lashed out, achieving no luck against the wall.

"Oh? Not going to use an energy blast? You -might- be able to break out with one, but I can assure you the field has enough strength that if you manage to break it, the resulting explosion will kill you as well... and I wouldn't want you to vaporize yourself before I get to study you. The field has its limitations but its sufficient to hold you for the required time."

* * *

Truth be told, despite their massive power increases, the warriors of earth were no match for Freiza. As had been guessed, Frieza's power was about equal to Goten at SSJ2, placing him well beyond their own powers... under normal circumstances. An onlooker on the ground would witness the doll like tyrant crashing against the three warriors, who's auras burst red when they were attacking and defending.

In order to better defend the planet, the warriors had had their ultimate potentials unlocked, and had learned the kaioken technique that had served Goku so well before he had learned to master the SSJ transformation. While the max Kaioken was a x20 multiplier, it proved to be just enough to place Tien on par with Frieza, with Kirllan and Yamcha trailing behind but still within enough of a power range to put up a fight.

The tyrants fist lashed out, smashing against Tien's arms as he braced them against his chest. A sudden burst of red drew the Tyrants as to the left and he swatted Yamcha away as the Ex-bandit attempted to take him by surprise. But where he failed, Frieza felt a sudden and painful crash against his skull and was knocked downwards.

Taking advantage of the opening, the triclopse's right foot snapped out, adding to the momentum and sending Frieza crashing to the ground. The Tyrant's response was a growl and a beam of red light from the dust that hit Tien in the chest, knocking him out of the air as well.

When the dust around the Tyrant settled, one could tell that he had several bruises and small cuts on his body, with just the faintest trickle of blood from the corner of his mouth. There was an annoyed look on his face as well. "Getting killed by monkeys was bad enough, getting touched by you worms is unbearable!" He yelled in his usual fashion. Energy started to swirl around as he powered up, and they could feel the change. "This is only 80% of my max you know."

The humans exchanged worried glances amongst themselves but their resolve saw them through as they charged at the lizard like creature once more.

Where the three had been on a relatively easy offense last time, they were now finding themselves on the defensive, having a good deal of trouble dealing with the Tyrants increased speed and power. Tien was doing his best to take the brunt of the assault with Krillan and Yamcha lending help and counter striking when possible.

As the Tyrant lashed out with his tail, Tien managed to close the distance and wrap it around his left arm while snatching Frieza's arm into an arm bar with his right, effectively tangling the tyrant up for a moment. Krillan and Yamcha quickly took position on each side and hit him with blasts of Ki, carefully avoiding hitting Tien in the process.

With a nod Tien let the Tyrant go and dropped under him, letting the other two safely pelt Frieza with small energy blast and small energy blast in rapid succession.

Thinking the advantage was theirs and not wanting to waste more energy than they had to, they waited for the dust to clear a bit. Before it did a white tail shot forth and wrapped around Yamcha's neck before he could duck out of the way. Tien's response was instant, flying up and locking the Tyrant in a full nelson and giving a signal to Krillan while Yamcha struggled to maintain enough lax to breath.

A sudden light caught the corner of Frieza's eye and he twisted to avoid it. Such was not quick enough to get out of the way of the suprise attack however and the Kaizan cut cleanly through his tail, dropping it and Yamcha to the ground below and drawing the first real spill of the blood thus far in the fight.

The humans didn't let up this time, however. From the ground below a small baseball sized ball of energy crashed into Frieza and knocked him back before doubling around and crashing into him again. Over and over the small ball pelted the Tyrant, and though he was able to dodge some of them, the speed and control Yamcha had over it made it and exceptionally difficult task.

A sudden shout from up above caught the lizards attention, and earned him another slug across face by the small ball of energy. "Kikaho!" The massive beam of light crashed down and over him, consuming him with the energy and causing him to vanish from the three of their sights, presumably in the crater that was left down below.

Two more blasts flowed the first, filling the hole with its power and digging deeper, hopefully putting an end to the tyrant. Sweating, Tien landed beside the other warriors with a slight nod.

Yamcha looked nervous. "Did that do it?"

Krillan was still holding himself in a battle pose, looking at the hole. "Maybe. I remember what happened with the spirit bomb though. I'm not taking any....ugh."

The sudden sound of pain caught their attention and the other two turned to look at the monk. The natural progression of their eyes went from him to the much more bulky shaped Frieza that was standing behind them.

"Oh, did I forget to mention that I picked up a trick from my brother? That blast might have killed me if I hadn't transformed." He laughed in his sadistic fashion. "Rats. I can't believe I had to transform for you." He grinned at krillan, arm outstretched towards him. He raised his arm and the monk followed. "Now this brings back memories, doesn't it? I believe it went a little something like this..."

His hand flexed and both himself and Krillan expected the warrior to be reduced to small pieces. That wasn't to be however, and instead he just fell over clutching his gut. Surprise was evident in Frieza's face, and he looked around for the culprit. The person wasn't to be found.

'Thanks Chotzu.' Tien said mentally. While his power hadn't grown like the rest of theirs, his psychic abilities had grown leaps and bounds. While he wouldn't have been able to fight Frieza with them, he was strong enough to suppress any psychic attacks that the tyrant did.

'Sorry I wasn't able to completely stop it. Theres some internal damage. A senzu should fix it, but he can't fight any more.' Tien glanced at the situation. They hadn't brought any with them. For reasons Korin couldn't explain, senzu's were growing increasinly rarer. Even despite all the time that had passed, there were only a handful, and he was using them to try and fix the situation.

'Do you think you can hold him for a few seconds?' Tien asked as his mind wandered to a possibility.

'Yeah, I think I can manage long enough for you to do that.' Tien could feel the worry.

'Heh. Its not that bad. We've practiced it before. Alright let Yamcha know....and....go.'

Tien shot off from where he was to land next to Yamcha, and as Frieza raised a hand to shoot him down he found himself unable to move. Knowing what was going on he did his best to fight against the psychic pressure, and was slowly winning over the small warriors psychic onslaught through use of his own abilities and brute force.

Tein nodded towards Yamcha. "Ready?"

"Yeah. Lets do this." He grinned and settled into the position as Tien lowered his power.

Frieza almost stopped his struggles at the incredulous display before him, and probably would have laughed at the ordeal if he wasn't infuriated at the moment.

One short ridiculous display later, there was a flash of bright light. When it died down a warrior was left where two had been, sporting a Mohawk and three eyes, combining the facial features and build of the two warriors, wearing the metamorian outfit as their clothing.

A smile crossed his features as he looked himself over and then looked at Frieza. "Its been awhile since I existed. Feels good to be alive." He popped his neck and wound up his right arm before settling into his stance, choosing Yamcha's desert style. It was more aggressive than Tien's and would work better for what he was planning. "Oh, just so you know who killed you, the names Yamushinhan"

'You can rest now.' He said mentally to Choutzu as he powered two small balls up, one in each hand, and he released them towards his opponent as he charged forwards, clad in a powerful red aura. Without Kaioken, he was a little weaker than Krillan with a x10. That taken into account, he estimated his times 20 to be between Gotenks SSJ1 and SSJ2 transformations. A grin spread across his features. This was going to be over quickly.

* * *

It had been about five minutes, and Gotenks was found sitting within the energy barrier, a thoughtful look on his face as he rested his head in his right hand and idly waved his left around in the air. It was on odd sight to see the super cocky warrior contemplating something, but time and training had tempered his personality a bit.

A grin spread over his face as he stood and dusted himself off before striking a pose and pointing towards Gero. "Sorry for the wait. I've only see this done a few times, so it took me a bit to work it out, and a little more time to change it. So get ready for...." He paused for dramatic effect while pointing two of his fingers towards the mad android and folding the rest of them back.

Gero looked on with interest, and slight worry. However, the worry was quickly suppressed as nothing Gotenks could do would best his own genius. The only genuine worry he had in this situation was that Gotenks would destroy himself and leave nothing behind for him to study. With some samples from someone that was under the effects of a fusion, he might be able to replicate the power boost in a new Cell.

His attention was caught them by a sudden appearance of light of light at the end of the teens finger tips. "Gotenks' super instant demon killing light gun!" The beam shot forwards and his barrier resisted for a few moments before giving way from the penetrating blast. Gero's enhanced reflexes kicked in and he pushed himself out of the way. His speed proved to be too little, however, as the beam tore through his right side, destroying that lung and ripping his arm from his body. The resulting loss of balance sent him crashing to the ground.

Gotenks threw a victory sign towards the fallen doctor with a cheer, before his mood became more sober and he looked towards Cell. "I can't sense an androids Ki, doctor, but I can sense his. I know that he's holding back. That instant beam didn't have very much of my power in it because the attack is designed for a longer charge up. Its destroyed you, but I doubt it would have scratched him."

A smirk came to Cells face as he waved his hand, causing a blast of energy that vaporized the good doctor. "A shame you never realized cute tricks had no place on the battlefield good doctor. I believe thats your second death as well. I'm glad I got to be the one to erase your miserable existence for good."

He looked towards Gotenks. "I had heard rumors about this SSJ3 and wanted to see it for myself before fighting you. I must admit that it is quite strong..."

'Gotenks!' A voice in his own head caught his attention. It was a voice he hadn't heard in many years, but recognized instantly. 'Something went wrong with your brother. He's in trouble!'

"Trouble in the home front?" Cell asked with another smirk and slowly started to power up. "I'll freely admit that your stronger than me, but not enough for your victory to be instant. I will slow you down long enough to prove fatal for dear Gohan."

Gotenks growled, but knew that he was going to have to stay and beat Cell. As painful as it was, he couldn't leave the monster to have his way with the world to go and save one person. As such, he crouched down and prepared to charge when he felt a hand on his shoulder. He turned and looked up to see a person who shared the features of two that he knew, and having felt the formation of his Ki earlier knew who it was.

"Sorry we're late. We had to drop Krillan off. We heard Kaio. Go save your brother. We'll clean up this trash."

Gotenks looked skeptical. "Frieza was one thing, but this guys completely out of his league. I don't think you have a chance."

Yamushinhan chuckled. "Maybe, maybe not. We have a few tricks up our sleeve. If your that worried about us, you better hurry."

Gotenks paused for a moment, but gave a slight nod. "Yeah, fine. Just don't get yourself killed." With that, he powered up and flew off, racing back to the Lookout for a trip to Otherworld.

Yamushinan ooked towards Cell who actually chuckled at the notion that they thought they could so much as stall him. Without another word, a red aura burst around the two warriors as they raced towards Cell, bracing themselves for combat.


	11. Chapter 10

A cold child was present, the feeling of the area augmented by the steady drizzle of what he could only assume was blood. Dark images and figures lined the area of the cave, giving off a very eerie presence, each seemingly designed to bore into your sole... to the point where it was almost a supernatural effect. Within their presence, he felt every little transgression he had committed against another person eating at him.

The shadowy cave gave way at the end, opening up to a dark red sky. The smell that he had identified earlier as blood proved to be true, as the red mist washed over him. Something in him shuddered at the feeling and sight, but he did his best to suppress it. He was here for a purpose after all.

Eye glanced over the area as best he could, making out a jagged range sprawled around him. Chunks were missing here and there from the rocks, entire sections vaporized at points. As he continued forwards, he noticed several craters with pools of blood slowly filling the bottoms of them. His only real sense of direction was that the destruction seemed to be heading in one general way.

"You know its too late, right? You can smell it in the air, can't you? Feel it on your shoulders, in your soul?" Dark voices that whispered in his ears as he floated on. "You can't do anything right, can you? Remember Buu? Its your fault that Vegeto got stuck together. Your fault that your families lost their fathers."

"Shut up." Gotenks growled as he continued on. He wasn't sure how long he personally could stay down here and still remain sane. To that end, he found it odd that villains that had spent a very long time down here indeed had been mostly fine, mostly the same as the stories that he had heard about them dictate.

A huge section of the mountain up ahead was missing, a crater easily a mile across starting at the edges of where it had been. He felt a flicker of power coming from within the crater and felt his heart twitch a bit. It was a very familiar power. One that he would have found much sooner had there not been some sort of field blocking his senses.

As he drew closer the mist seemed to let up a bit, and he realized that it wasn't naturally doing do. Rather, it was being both blown away and vaporized. For at the bottom of the crater, a weird pink and red alien with a black M across its head was locked in a clutch with his older brother, the raven haired Saiya-jin being pressed into the ground, just barely holding back the assault.

Gotenks battle ready mind quickly took in the situation, noting that Gohans clothes were nearly destroyed and that cuts gouges and burns littered his body to the point that one of his eyes was actually sealed shut and his hair was matted down by the weight of his own sticky blood.

His opponent on the other hand was relatively fine. A few minor burns and scrapes were present, but nothing that would have lowered his power significantly. Gotenks could pick up on the inconstancy though, Gohan had trained him that well. The sheer amount of damage that had littered the landscape indicated that the battle had been fairly even, otherwise Gohan would have been destroyed long ago. No, there had to have been some sort of transformation involved.

His brother seemed to take notice of his presence, his pained look switching to shock for a moment and then quickly fading into a slight smile. It seemed as though the only thing that had been keeping him up was the fact that he knew that to fall would be the end. Now that backup had arrived, his body had taken over and overid his mind, causing his eyes to close and his body to collapse under the power struggle with the strange creature.

The creature responded by pulling back its arm, seemingly in preparation to run him through. So intent on finishing his prey, however, he was unaware of Gotenks presence. The sudden burst of Gold light caught his attention at the last moment, but not with enough time for him to respond to the blind charge the Gotenks launched into, a scream of rage echoing from his lips.

The tackle knocked the creature off balance, and Gotenks shifted his momentum into an upwards kick, sending it rocketing into the sky. Energy flickered and exploded around him as his hair shot down to his knees near instantly and he rocketed into the air. Twin balls of energy exploded into life in each of his hands, left followed by right chucked like baseballs and exploding against the flesh of his enemy.

His momentum didn't slow for a second however as he crashed in and through the smoke, his opponent flying out the other side with Gotenks fist buried in his stomach, said warrior coming out from the smoke immediately after. Their exposure to the blood soaked air was limited, however, as another golden explosion shot up around them as Gotenks released energy from the fist pressed against the red creatures stomach.

This cloud was quickly blown away as the creature struck back with a furious volley of faster than light punches and kicks, which Gotenks blocked and parried, striking back with his own. They were, however, equally nullified and the two were locked into an exchange of blows, the disruptions caused by their impacts causing waves of destabilization and the mountains around them to crack.

As near as Gotenks could tell, factoring in the damage he had caused with his initial attack, they were near even.

The creature suddenly backed off a small ways and struck out, Gotenks immediately taking advantage of the fact that the creatures arm wasn't actually long enough to hit him. However, he was taken off guard as it suddenly lengthened and clasped around his neck. The red creatures body twisted and his arm snapped around like a spring, catapulting into, and embedding Gotenks in, one of the nearest mountains.

He was gathering his energy to attack once more when the mountain around him suddenly exploded into splinters and shards of rocks, surrounding him in a sea of sharp slivers. He shifted the energy to a defensive shell around himself, but as he started to do so the creatures arm suddenly materialized from nowhere in front of him and slammed into his gut, the unexpected blow knocking the wind out of him.

As quickly as that one vanished, another one appeared, wrapping around his throat as the millions of shards span around, past and against him, like a dust storm of razorblades. His eyes instinctively shut until he had recovered from the blow, and had gathered enough energy. With a massive blast of Ki he vaporized the assaulting material and blew off the arm gripping him.

He felt the wounds before his eyes opened, his long hair fading into blond spikes as he dropped to his knees. Blood dripped down from most of his body, and as his eyes looked over himself he realized that he was worse than he felt. While none of the wounds were particularly deep, the sheer number of them was causing his mind to be both overwhelmed by pain, and weak from a loss of blood.

His eyes came up from his body to see his opponent floating a short distance away, a sword now present in his hand and pointing down towards Gotenks, a twisted grin on the creatures face. He started to gather as much energy as he could to resist what was coming, debating on using what energy he had left much like Vegeta had tried to do years before against Buu. This thing didn't seem to have Buu's regeneration, which meant he very well might be able to take him with him. He would be sad to take Gohan with him, but if he fell Gohan was coming anyways... and he knew that no one else in the universe could stop this thing.

He had just made up his mind when he saw a blast of gold energy explode against the side of the red creatures head, and as he looked up on the ridge of the crater he thought he was hallucinating at the sight of four gruff looking Super Saiya-jins looking down on him, one of them strikingly familiar save his manor of dress and a scar of his face.

As his hair faded to black and he fell face down in a pool of his own blood, body separating into a pair, he distinctively heard a voice say "Those are my grandsons your fucking with."

Unseen by any of the combatants, a green figure quickly made his way to the fallen Gohan before vanishing, leaving nothing behind.

* * *

On Earth, the fight had quickly gone south. In reality, the fused warrior hadn't had a chance, even using the full power of Kaioken he was getting throughly pummeled. Cell, the creature that he was fighting, was comprised of the Cells of both of his parts, and had full access to his range of abilities. But it wasn't just his abilities but every Z warrior. As a result, he wasn't just weaker, he was also technically outmatched.

He suspected that the only reason that he was still standing was because Cell was toying with him, and for what reason he couldn't imagine. Cell even just playing with him had quickly wore him down, however, and now he was standing on his last leg. And then he did something the fusion hadn't been expecting: he stopped and smiled at him.

"Should be about time." Cell said, as he dropped out of a fighting stance.

"Oh?" The fusion said, not passing up the opportunity for a breather.

"I didn't come to Earth to play with -you-." Annoyance was present. "Only one person has my attention, only one person have I spent all these years dwelling on and thinking about. It was my dreams of vengeance that kept me sane, and nothing else."

He shook his head. "And yet, even Son Gohan is but a passing amusement, one that I was hoping that I would get a chance to partake in, but not one that is part of my intimidate plans. Even so, I can feel his power slowly building on your Lookout. It seems as though I'll get to have my fun after all."

The fusion was ready to spring at Cell while his guard was down when the creatures tail suddenly lashed out from the side, catching him in the side of the head and near instantly rendering him unconscious, breaking the fusion.

"I'm perfect. Worms like you should know their place."

* * *

His darkness slowly faded away to a rocky landscape lit by an blood red glow, intertwined with sparks and lights of gold, the source of which was coming from somewhere above. As his hearing started to return, it was greeted with the loud sound of explosions and screams, and more predominantly the sound of weight landing next to him. As the sound of foot falls approached him, a golden glow followed with, filling him with warmth and washing out the red.

"Hey kid." A gruff voice said as his legs came into view. Twisting his head up, Goten realized that the face he was staring into was that of his fathers.

"Dad!" He exclaimed. "How?" naturally followed as he realized it was impossible.

His dad shook his head and gave him a sad smile. "Sorry. I'm not your father, just a warrior long since forgotten."

Out of the corner of his eyes, he noticed Trunks starting to stir. "Are you my grandpa?" He asked finally.

"Something like that." Bardock said after a moment of thought. "Look, kid. I hate to cut this short, but you have to get up. We can't fuse or do that Super Saiya-jin three thing, so we're about at the limit for how long we can stall him."

"Why are you a Super Saiya-jin?" Was the next question, as he rubbed his head and started to stand.

"Special permission from above. We were allowed to train so that we could police hell. Something about the recent occupants being exponentially stronger than usual." He shrugged. "They figured that a Saiya-jin was a great thing to have on hand if they are pointed in the right direction."

He had made it to his feet, a little uneasy but regaining his balance slowly. One step after another he found himself moving easier until he was standing by Trunks, who had made it to a crouch. With a wince he reached down and gave the older teen a hand, pulling him back onto his feet.

"I don't know how much help we're going to be. You all aren't that much weaker than Gotenks, and I doubt we can go SSJ3 either with the shape we're in." Even as he said it, though, him and Trunks were already getting into the position for the dance.

"Let us worry about that kids." He looked up towards the three golden warriors fighting with the red demon, gesturing with a flick of the wrist. The three nodded, and all four held their hands towards the creature, who was at present rushing towards the only female in the group. Before he could reach his target, however, a golden shell sprang into life around him, sending him rebounding off of it.

"Thats only going to hold him for a short time. You two need to hurry."

A nod was given, and the two began to dance, noticing the three warriors landing next to Goten's grandfather. He smiled at him. "It was nice to see my grandsons with my own eyes."

And then he turned towards his group. "And nice to fight with you all one last time."

Each of them nodded before all of them closed their eyes and held their arms towards Goten and Trunks. Even as the golden light of the fusion shot into existance, the four golden warriors disolved into golden light, their energy swarming around Gotenks own, flooding into it and into him. He felt his power rocket up and transformed, each level reaching its max until he hit his third stage, energy slamming into that cap as well and pushing beyond it.

Gotenks skin began to change to a golden color as his body overflowed with energy, pressing past even the limits of this form. Instinctively it reached for a way to adapt, to take on a way to coop and contain the excess Ki. It seemed to begin to find something, something different than anything he felt, but even as his consciousness moved towards it, it quickly became closed off by a wall he felt was all but impenetrable.

Taking conscious control of the power to direct it, to stop himself from destroying himself with the power, he directed it into his arm. Something in his mind directed him in how, and the energy sprung to life in and around his right hand.

He pulled the arm back and shifted into a pitching stance, the name of the attack coming to his mind even as he found it oddly appropriate. In over dramatic and traditional Gotenks fashion, he pointed his free arm up towards the demon.

"Let me show you the Spirit of the Saiya-jins!" Not one to be outdone, he let his own energy funnle into the glowing spear and hand, dropping down each level of transformation until he was in his base SSJ. With a roar he threw his free arm back and shifted forwards, pitching the ball of energy forwards. Near instantly it closed the distance, somehow passing through the barrier and exploding with incredible force.

The shell managed to contain the force of the blast for a few moments, further magnifying its power by containing the volume of its force before it shattered and the light raced outwards consuming everything it touched. With a slight yelp Gotenks quickly turned on heal and blasted off, just barely outrunning the force of the blast.

He briefly hesitated to grab his brother, but not seeing Gohan or feeling his Ki, gave a slight shrugged and continued on, not looking at the devastation he had caused. Real men don't look at explosions behind them, after all.

* * *

"Get up." Gohan was firm in his statement, standing a few feet away from an insect like creature who was doubled over, blood dripping from his mouth. While Gohan was covered in fairly serious wounds himself, it was obvious that Cell was loosing this fight, even with his regeneration. Slowly, Gohan was wearing down his Ki reserves, and soon he would have little left to fight back with.

"You've...gotten much stronger than I had expected." Cell stated as he stood, wiping the blood from his mouth as he felt his internal wounds closing up. "I had thought that I would be able to defeat you as I am, be able to crush you with my own power." His gaze shifted to stair Gohan in the eyes. "But now that I understand what you Saiya-jins are, I can understand why it is like it is."

Gohan's eyes remained cold, thoughts drifting back to his originial fight with Cell, to the time where his father sacrificed himself because of his weakness and lack of control. He wasn't going to let that happen again. "What are you talking about?"

Cell shook his head. "Ask that brat Shin what I'm talking about. Ask him what he's been hiding from you. His attention was pulled away from Gohan for a moment before it returned. "Seems your brother beat that little pest I let loose." A grin came to his face. "Right on time. I was starting to wonder if I should be worried he got himself killed."

Gohan was about to ask what he was talking about when dark flashes of purple lightning shot up around Cell, scorching the earth around him while indicating the violent and powerful energy boost that was happening with in him. The M that was spreading across his forehead clearly told what was happening to him, and the grin showed that it was his intention all along.

Gohan knew that he had absolutely no chance. The energy that he was feeling was equivalent, if not stronger, than Vegeto was in his Super Vegeto state. While he was much stronger than he had been, that level of power was still many times his own strength. His scientific mind found it odd how much the majin curse differed in scope of power between what Babidi had used and what was now present, but he realized that the curse Babidi had used was a watered down version; and not just that, this one was growing. Even as he sensed its Ki, he could feel the presence of the demon he had fought earlier within it.

When things died down, Cells form had changed a small amount, his features being more defined, his size having increased a bit. The most noticeable difference was that his green skin had darkened to a deep, nearing black, red.

Beside him, a lone Cell Jr. suddenly appeared, with him were the seven Dragon Balls. Gohan's mouth gaped as he prepared to rush forwards, before Cell raised a hand in his direction.

"No heroics Son Gohan. As of now, I'm prepared to give you one last fighting chance. But if you interrupt me, I will vaporizes this entire planet, and then the rest of the universe section by section afterwards. You have no chance of winning as you are now, don't be foolish." And then, almost off handedly, "Arise, Eternal Dragon."

The seven orbs glowed before light burst from them. Spiraling and twisting, it eventually took the form of a massive green dragon hovering over them. Once more Gohan thought about attacking, but dropped his head in defeat. Cell was serious about giving them a chance. He had Saiya-jin cells in him, he wouldn't blow up his only chance to test his power.

"You have summoned me. What is your wish?" The dragons voice boomed down around them.

Dark purple lightning began to flash not only around Cell, but around the dragon as well. Realizing what was happening, Gohan dropped all notion of living to fight another day and instead rushed forwards, energy flowing through him as he powered up.

But he was too late.

"Dragon." Cell said as he waved his hand towards Gohan, a stray bolt of energy crashing against him and knocking him out of the sky. "Become a part of me."

The dark purple energy suddenly struck the dragon, and after a moment it exploded into a mirad of colors, all of which were quickly corrupted and transformed into the same dark, evil Ki. It washed down and around Cell, absorbing into him, changing him. Through the light the only change Gohan could register were his eyes becoming more sharp and defined, glaring into his soul but full of near infinite knowledge.

The stars of the dragonballs changed to the same color, floating up and into the storm of swirling energy, doing what Gohan could only imagine was merging with Cell. Dread filled him as the eyes settled on him, and though the rest of the features were hidden he could feel the smirk settling on him.

"Hahaha. Now I really am perfect." He paused for a moment, sensing Gohans fear, and confusion under it. "The Majin curse had been seeking out more powerful hosts, specifically ones that could transform. Naturally, it eventually found me. Comprised of the Cells of the most powerful races to ever exist, I was the ideal target. But it wasn't that easy. Because my mind is a mixture of strongest as well as my body, so it was unable to control me. Instead I bent it to my will."

He laughed a dark, evil laugh that made Gohan shake. "I had my eyes on the Dragon from the beginning, but I knew Vegeto would be an issue. So I implemented my plan to get him out of the picture. I must say, it worked better than even I expected. Next was to get you and Gotenks out of the picture while I gathered the dragonballs, as well as a way to increase my own powers. The disorder I caused in hell allowed me to find what would serve my purposes as well."

Realization set into Gohan's eyes, realization that Cell relished.

"Thats right, Gohan. I am the mastermind behind everything that has occurred, all arranged so that I could achieve true perfection. And now here I stand, the most perfect being to exist, with no equal to test my strength. And thats why I'm giving you this chance. You and your friends have exactly ten years while I sweep through the rest of universe."

Before Gohan could utter a word, the storm of energy was gone, and Cell with it, leaving him alone staring at an empty, scotched field, darkness feeling his heart.

Another rip of energy caught his attention to the side, and he feared Cell had changed his mind. Instead a pod like object seemed to appear from nowhere and crash into the ground. After a few moments, Gohan knew what he was feeling from inside of it.

The hatched popped open and from within a familiar figure stood and gave him a slight wave before reaching back down inside and helping a blue haired woman out.

Recovering from his shock, Gohan took a few steps towards the pod. "Vegeto...dad." He said with a smile, the combined shock of the recent events taking too much of a toll on his emotions, leaving him rather dull.

"Hey. You should be happier to see your old man." He said with a grin, which slowly started to fade as Gohan assumed he was reaching his senses out to feel what was going on. "So, what have I missed?" Though his tone was somewhat light, his eyes were serious.

Gohan was about to begin feeling him in when a sudden burst of gold shot out from the pod before latching onto Vegeto's back, after a few seconds teal eyes and golden hair popping over Vegeto's shoulder to look at Gohan.

"Maybe you should introduce your daughter to her brother?" Bulma said somewhat impatiently, but an underlying understanding tone.

"Oh. Right." Vegeto said, a slight sweat drop appearing at his temple. "Gohan, this is Bra, your sister. Bra, this is Gohan, one of your brothers."

The hesitation in Bra's eyes melted away and before Gohan could react he had a Super Saiya-jin ball gripped around his chest. This seemed to be the final straw to break in his mind, between Cell absorbing the dragon, Vegeto appearing out of nowhere, the fight with the demon earlier, and now SSJ sister who couldn't have been older than 3 or 4 who his senses were telling him was stronger than Gotenks had been as little as a few years ago.

His vision faded between the wounds and shock, and the world went black.


	12. Chapter 11

The mood on the lookout was both solemn and joyous. Everyone present was both happy and relieved to have Vegeto back, both as a friend and family member as well as Earths best hope of surviving the coming threat. Further was the new addition to his family, Goten, Trunks and Gohans little sister Bra. Gohan in particular found the development interesting, as he had his own child at home now, Pan, though she was younger than Bra.

It was this girl that he had a great deal of interest in as well. Despite only being a three or four years old, she was incredibly strong, already a SSJ. He had made it a point to ask about this later, but didn't think it was fitting to do so just yet with more pressing issues on the table. In the meantime, the little golden haired girl had planted herself in Gotens hair and was currently chewing on one of his locks.

"I see." Vegeto said, breaking the silence that had settled over the lookout for the past few minutes following Gohan explaining what had transpired. "I can't say that I'm shocked. I knew that there was some greater force pulling the strings behind what happened to me, and out of everyone that we have faced Cell is defiantly the one I would most suspect of pulling a stunt like this."

He looked Gohan in the eyes. "How strong was he?"

Gohan thought back and did his best to compare the power now that he wasn't being overwhelmed by it. "Stronger than your first level of Super Saiya-jin at least, and theres no way for me to know if he had been holding back. If I had to guess, I'd say hes at least as strong as you in your SSJ2 form, and it seemed as though he had further plans. Either way, theres no one that can stand up to him but you."

A slight smirk tugged on the edge of Vegeto's mouth. "Maybe just yet..." It was an absent statement, but he knew what Vegeto was thinking. It came back to his daughter, Bra, whom it was clearly evident he was extremely proud of.

"But for now, we'll work under that assumption. Thats not letting any of you off the hook, I expect all of you to keep up with your training." He turned his attention towards Goten and Trunks. "Though I expect you to also keep up with managing Capsule Corp. Your mothers out of the loop and has decided to retire for the most part."

Trunks eyes widened a bit. "Theres no way I can run the company and find time to train."

Vegeto shook his head. "Your a sharp boy. Figure it out."

Goten chuckled at his friends misfortune until he felt Vegeto's eyes on him. "I'm sure Goten can give you a hand. It will do him some good, isn't that right?"

Goten's response was to gulp. "Ye..yeah. Sure." His mind wondering how many dates he was going to have to cancel.

Dende coughed slightly, indicating that he had retured from the recesses of the Lookout and had knews. Vegeto gave him a nod.

"Shin says that he has some things to manage, but that he will stop by shortly."

A frown came to Vegeto's face as the situation was rather urgent, and he had a number of questions to ask the God, mostly having to do with what Gohan had mentioned...as well as a few of his own realizations and something that Gotenks had mentioned experiancing.

Gohan decided that waiting on Shin provided him a chance to ask a few of the questions that had been churning around in his own mind.

"So...when did she gain the ability to turn into a Super Saiya-jin?" He asked, looking with slight wonder of the little golden haired girl who seemed to pick up on the fact that she was the center of attention, beaming slightly before burying herself in Goten's hair.

"I'm not really sure my self. Truth be told, I think she might have been born with the ability to do so." He looked slightly questioning himself but shrugged it off. It was part of the questions he wanted to ask.

"Its...kind of shocking, but I guess it makes sense. For the time, I was born incredibly strong, and then Goten and Trunks were born much stronger than I was, Trunks being born even stronger than his Future counterpart. If I had to take a guess, it almost seems as though the power of the parent directly influences how strong the child is."

Vegeto gave a slight shrug. "Maybe. Its a hybrid thing though. Saiya-jin families were typically born with around the same strength as their parents and ancestors. It was a steady trend, not a growing one. No, this is something else entirely." Obviously the Vegeta in him was speaking, as Kakarot wouldn't have the knowledge or the care to think too much into it.

"So how strong is she?" He asked finally.

Vegeto grinned. "Feeling a bit threatened?" He chuckled. "She was born about with about as much Ki as either of my parts were back during the whole Buu deal, and I've been training her as best as one can train someone that young...and as much as your mother would let me." He tossed a slightly annoyed look towards Bulma, but Gohan could tell it wasn't entirely serious.

His eyes glanced around as though he was picking up their powers. Though Gotenks wasn't present, he understood the fusion well enough to know his power by examining Goten and Trunks individually.

"And I'd say that at present she has about 60-75% of Gotenks current Ki." He shrugged. "She can't turn SSJ2 yet, and she certainly can't control her Ki for more than basic flight or Ki blasts, so her power is largely pointless. Its just the potential thats there that matters."

Gohan nodded. A toddler within batting range of Gotenks. Even without the higher level transformations, that was a scary thought. "Why is she staying a Super Saiya-jin?"

Another grin from Vegeto. "It seems almost as natural as breathing to her....plus I think she likes the gold more than she likes her normal hair color." Behind him, Bulma gave a slight smile and a shake of her head. The child was very clearly her daughter.

A sudden appearance of a familiar Ki caught their attention, and they all turned towards the edge of the lookout to see Shin standing their, looking towards them. Despite being a fusion of the Supreme Kaio and Kabito, he had preferred for them to continue to call him Shin.

"I'm afraid I have some bad news." His mood was dark, and everyone looked at him with interest except Vegeto, who's face showed understanding instead.

"The planet Namek has been wiped out by Cell. He went there to absorb their dragon as well. When they refused, he destroyed the planet." Sadness seemed to sweep through everyone but the fused warrior, and his daughter who didn't know any better, with it hitting Gohan especially hard.

"But. You mentioned you wanted to see me about something?"

Vegeto gave a slight nod. "I felt Namek." He said as he stepped forwards, placing a hand on Gohans shoulder before moving past. In a shocking move, his hand snatched around Shin's collar faster than anyone could follow, hoisting him into the air

There was a few collected gasps, and laughter from the young Bra, as Vegeto glared into Shin's eyes.

"When did you Gods decide to play around with the Saiya-jins genes?"

He felt Shin gulp, and watched his eyes dart to the side as he tried to avoid the question. With a grunt, he let the God fall to the floor and backed away as he attempted to catch his breath. "It was Western Kaioshin." Was his statement once he finally got his breath back. "But its not what you think."

"Dabura was one of the first Evil Kaioshin's to be born in thousands of years. His birth represented a grave threat to the universe, far more dangerous than any of the more petty villains that you have faced, more dangerous than even Cell back before this whole mess." He started to stand, dusting himself off.

"We did what we were supposed to and banished him to the demon realm, but he was far more powerful than any of us save Daikaioshin, and we feared that he would raise an army and attack the normal realm. We debated on what to do about it, but she had her own ideals, and once she made up her mind there was little you could do to change it."

He waved his hand and images formed, images of a pink clad, purple spiky haired female with red earings. West Kaioshin.

"Tsukuyomi." Vegeto said with some slight awe, for once in his life actually looking like he was in the presence of a God.

"Thats right. To your people, she was the Goddess. Naturally, as the only thing you worshiped was the moon, she came to be associated with it."

He paused for questions, but sensing none, continued on. "Out of all of the races, you had been her favorite people. So when we felt the universe was threatened, it was you that she turned to, to shape into its protectors. She wanted to gift you with the ability of incredible growth, growth that would further accelerate in the face of adversity and annihilation, so that you would have the ability to raise up and defend the universe from any threat."

He shook his head. "But the rest of us sensed danger there. Your race always had an innate taste for battle, and before this was already incredibly strong. To use your old system of messurment, even the weakest of you was born with Power Levels of 20-50 thousand. The Royal Cast could be born with upwards of 500,000...in some very rare cases a million."

The was clear shock around, but Vegeto merely nodded. "I see. So a compromise was made."

Shin nodded. "Yes. We agreed to allow her to grant your race the ability for incredible growth, and the transformations that you know as Super Saiya-jin, but at the cost of greatly reducing your initial Ki."

Gohan spoke up. "I had always felt that the Super Saiya-jin transformations felt out of place, considering the existence of the Oozaru ability. It makes sense that their artificial"

Another nod from Shin. "Yes. The Oozaru form was the Saiya-jins true transformation. The leader of the Saiya-jins race, before Tsukuyomi's interference, was in each generation about the strength of Frieza at full power while in Oozaru form."

Vegeto shook his head. "Thats fairly ironic."

"At any rate." Shin continued. "Thats why Dabura was so shocked at how strong you were. When he was cast down, no race had the potential for that level of strength. But more importantly, it was because of our manipulation that Buu was born."

He cast his eyes downward. "It was an accident. One that we didn't realize until much later. We had to alter the very fabric of the universe in order to make these changed. Doing so left something like a well, and cracks, and required the combined effort of all four Supreme Kai's, along with the Daikaio. Though it only lasted a few moments, our timing couldn't have been worse."

He shook his head. "It was a freak accident. Bibidi had been using his Majin spell on a Dijiin somewhere else in the universe while we were in the process of altering your race. It just happened to hit the cracks in the fabric of reality and mutated, becoming the Majin curse. This is the reason that the curse affecting Buu was so much different, and so much more powerful, than the ones that you saw affecting the human fighters, Vegeta and Dabura. And why its so powerful now."

Vegeto nodded, but wasn't completely satisfied just yet. "We used to be different, didn't we?"

Shin thought back. "Yes. More bestial. A cross between what you are now and a primate. Saiya-jins were much more bulky and well defined, with most of their bodies covered in fur and wild hair."

He looked thoughtful for a moment. "And you say that as we are sealed now, we're only at less than 1/10,000 the power that we would be?"

Shin looked hesitant. "Technically. But it doesn't work like that. Even in your natural form, you would never have come to even a noticeable fraction of your current power."

Vegeto went back to thinking, and Shin continued his history lessen. "We finished what we were doing, but before we could begin tasking your race with, and instructing them about their new roll in the universe, Buu attacked, and you know what happened from there. All but myself were wiped out, and the Saiya-jins were forgotten on their planet. Without any outside threat up until Frieza, your race was reduced to a fraction of its former power without any push of threat to activate your rapid growth."

"Whats stopping us from getting both, changing back to our original forms and using the Super Saiya-jin transformations?" Vegeto continued his line of questioning, seemingly ignoring the most recent statements.

"The universe." Shin said straightforwards. "Its hardwired, programed. When a Saiya-jin's born, the universe itself imposes the rules that we've put into place. Even the powers of the eternal dragon wouldn't be able to undo it. As I said, only a full set of Supreme Kai's can alter reality."

Vegeto looked away and said nothing, still seemingly in thought. Both personalities that had formed him, Vegeta and Kakarot, would have been highly interested in this prospect. Goku for the advancement, Vegeta for the pride of his people.

"And what about the rapid progression of Hybrids, especially with the growing power of their parent?" He asked finally.

Shin looked honestly confused, but Gohan stepped in. "After hearing all that, I think I understand that part, actually. They didn't plan on Saiya-jins mating with other races, so the limits falter based on the strength of the parent. A little bit of the old power passes on, if that makes sense. I don't think it was entirely unintended though. The odds of two races having the ability to mate is near impossible."

Shin smiled slightly, realization coming on. "Tsuku wanted her cake and eat it to. It was her that decided the new form that Saiya-jins would take. She knew the adverse reaction that Hybrids would have to our limitations and made sure that Saiya-jins were compatible to mate with one. She cheated."

Vegeto laughed. "Our Goddess was many things. Clever being chief amongst them."

"Perhaps." Shin said. "Its worked out though, so I suppose I can't complain." His attention seemed to be pulled away towards what they could only assume was Otherworld. "If theres nothing else, I'm afraid you'll have to excuse me."

Vegeto nodded, as he himself tucked Bulma under his right arm and plucked Bra off of Gotens head with his left before suddenly flying off, a lot apparently on his mind.

Shin looked slightly disgruntled but understanding, giving the rest of them a polite nod before vanishing.

"Well...thats quite a bit to think about." Gohan said, looking at the rest, who were all in a good deal of thought themselves.

Trunks looked most curious, looking around at everyone. "Did anyone else notice that Mom was younger?"

In traditional anime fashion, everyone present fell to the floor.


	13. Chapter 12

(A/N: Lucky you guys. Cars having some issues so I got trapped on campus, leaving me with little more to do than write. So here's some more back-story/info dump for you)

Vegeto was found within the hyperbolic time chamber, doing something that most would be shocked to see: meditating. For the past few months he had pushed himself to the very brink, to the very edge of his being, his abilities, and beyond. Scraped away from him was any residual feeling of what he had been, and every day he had been born again. He could feel in his very soul that the challenge that was coming would be the greatest to every effect the universe.

Today it had been time for him to bring his mind up to speed with his body, however, to bring his thoughts to a point where they could direct his continued advancement. And on his mind was a primary issue that was the most challenging on that he had to deal with: Super Saiya-jin three.

* * *

Goku huffed and weezed, floating above the world of the grand kai, having pushed himself to his limits. Before him stood the greatest warrior to ever live, the only one that hadn't returned back into the cycle of life and death. And the reason for that choice had been simple: he couldn't return back until he had found his match, and passed on something of himself to the person that he had found worthy.

Even as an Ascended Super Saiya-jin, the warrior was still an even match. But Goku could feel it as he was fighting him, feel what he had done with opponents so many times before. The warrior was holding back against him, not making use of his full strength. While a certain Saiya-jin prince would have flown off the handle at the insult, Goku saw it as a challenge. For here within the afterlife he had found a wall that he had to surmount, one that he would find nowhere else.

"You know how to beat me." The warrior said, breaking the silence and the breather that they had both chosen to take before the next charge. "Why aren't you doing it?"

His usual goofy grin spread across his face as Goku scratched the back of his head. "Well…I think I know how to do it, but I've never tried it before."

The warrior shook his head. "You have nothing to lose and everything to gain. Do you want all of your advancements to come only when something precious is at stake?"

Goku shook his head. "It's not that. I'm really enjoying the fight. It doesn't matter if I win, but I'll keep coming back until I do."

The warrior laughed. "That's what I sensed in you, the reason I agreed to fight you. Your soul is pure, your intention to fight simply to fight, rather than the intention to win. That's the true Saiya-jin spirit and pride that was lost so long ago." Noticing Goku's confused look, he shook his head. "Ah. I'm showing my age I think. Just an old man rambling on about times long past. Come, now, show me the trick that's running through your mind."

In normal things, Goku was a little slower than most. But that's because his entire mind was geared towards fighting. Concepts that took others decades to master he could do so in a few short months, days even sometimes. Not that his mind was dissecting things, just that it naturally arranged things. Such was the difference between his methods and Vegeta's. Which Vegeta very carefully worked with everything that he knew to shape knew things, what Goku knew naturally came together to form advancement.

Such was the technique that he had dev eloped.

Gathering his energy to its peak, Goku began to invoke it, invoke a change in his very being. Energy spiked and rushed around him as a similar feeling to that of his first transformation began to overtake him, but so much more powerful and extreme was it. The stress tore at his body and damaged his very fabric, and he knew that had he been alive it may well have been fatal.

But his dead body was made of pure Ki formed into the shape that he had held while alive, and recovered from the stress, twisting and molding itself to compensate. Seeking out what he had felt, what had told him to follow this particular path, he found within himself a Gate, a gate that he himself had formed through what he had done.

Seizing hold of this barrier, he ripped it open and allowed the torrent to flood through him uncontrolled and unrestrained. Once more, the sheer stress threatened to tear him apart and he knew that if he let it, nothing of himself would remain. His energy would find itself throughout all of otherworld in little pieces.

Once again, however, he was able to manage, and pulled himself back together, contained the power within him, through him…that was him. And at that moment he felt it stabilize, the torrent subside.

Before him, his opponent had a slight look of awe, but at the same time a very clear look of some sort of recognition, as he had realized what Goku had been holding back. But he hadn't expected anything this powerful, power far above and beyond his own. The difference between Goku's previous strength and this was staggering.

But as quickly as it had came, Goku felt it slip away. It was as though all the energy that he had let rush through the Gate was suddenly pulled back, suddenly reclaimed, and he felt all of his existing energy, everything but what was holding his form together, get dragged back with it.

* * *

At the memory, Vegeto chuckled. Now that Vegeta's way of thinking was mixed with Goku's, and now that it had access to those memories, he understood everything. The two primary reasons that Vegeta hadn't reached SSJ3 were simple. The first was that, plain and simple, SSJ3 was a form of cheating. The second was because of its very nature, because of the way it worked, Vegeta would have never considered perusing such a form for the same reasons he had never went after USSJ.

Through sheer power and control, Goku had managed to tap into the unlimited potential within him, to tie the power that he currently possessed to the power that he could one day posses and use that tie to drag the energy though. But the energy resisted, and continued to resist for as long as one held it. In a sense, it was like stealing from the future, much as it was like taking a loan. And once the user lost the strength to hold on to it, it returned to its rightful state, taking with it interest.

It was taxing beyond anything else, however, because it was almost the definition of unnatural. Had Vegeta tried it, or had Goku attempted it for the first time while alive, they most assuredly would have been destroyed. Not just death, but obliteration to the point that not even the dragon would have been able to put them back together.

But because he had been dead at the time, Goku had been able to achieve what was by all accounts impossible and live, in a sense, to tell about it. The other thing that had been working in his favor where that the laws governing otherworld were somewhat looser than the laws governing the mortal universe. Once his soul was directly tied to his infinite potential, however, it was forever so and he could access it without further risking obliteration though he would never be able to eliminate the cost that was attached.

Gotenks had also achieved this state, something that had proven quite confusing for Goku. Even if he didn't understand the mechanics of it, he knew that it should have been impossible for it to work. But, Gotenks had cheated even more so than Goku. Truth was, Gotenks had obliterated himself many, many times before he achieved mastery of the form, due to not being dead and not having Goku's natural gifts. Even though the laws of the time chamber were similar to that of otherworld, Gotenks disadvantage left him scattered many times.

The trick was, with the way the fusion dance worked, every time Gotenks obliterated himself, he simply split back into Goten and Trunks. That was also the reason that the form cut the fusions time so much shorter. They simply didn't have the skill to maintain the balance necessary for the backlash of the ability to not eventually destroy them. Its also why they were slowly gaining more time with it as they became more skilled.

But, those were the reasons that Vegeto himself couldn't transform into a Super Saiya-jin 3.

Though Goku was a part of him, as far as the universe was concerned Vegeto was a unique individual born of Goku and Vegeta. Though he had a combination of their minds and souls, he was technically entirely new. This meant that his potential was an entirely different one that that of Kakarot's, and that the link between his soul and his potential was unconnected as he himself had never formed the links, never had the opportunity to do so. After all, he had never been dead, and his fusion was permanent so he didn't have the luxury of obliterating himself until he got it right.

This is why he found himself meditating, attempting to find something in him, some way of further advancing his power without resorting to a method of cheating he almost certainly wouldn't survive.


	14. Chapter 13

AN: Because I felt the placement would make the story flow better, chapter 12 (about the Saiya-jin home world) was changed to the first chapter and entitled "Origins", and as a result chapter 13 (the chapter about SSJ3) became chapter 12. I just thought I'd post this incase anyone managed to overlook the chapter as a result. xD Also, I went ahead and set up a author forum thing that FF has for stories. I've posted a link DragonBall Multiverse as well as a general power comparison chart for the end of the Cell deal.

Gotenks let out a yelp as he dived to the right, catching himself and folding into a roll to put some small distance between himself and his opponent. Sensing the closing of Ki, he powered up and blasted in the direction he had came from, causing a large explosion to rush through the area. Not wanting to take any chances, he hopped back for further the distance, and powered up another blast.

"You're a lot stronger than you were!" He said with a slight grin, bringing his arm forwards to release a blast of concentrated energy. "But you need more experience before you can beat me!"

He felt a burst of power and saw the light scatter the smoke from his earlier blast, and watched as a shape flew forwards and twisted around his blast. Flying underneath of it, his opponent almost let themselves graze it to show off. He cut off the energy he was feeding into it even as it exploded past them, and crossed his arms over his chest to brace for the coming blow. He couldn't fully prepare himself however, and a Ki enhanced fist slammed into his chest, knocking the wind of of him and dropping him to his knees.

He groaned as he looked at the golden haired girl, marveling at how powerful his sister had become. Bulma had been against the idea of letting her use the Room of Spirit and Time, not wanting to lose a few years of her daughter's life. Unfortunately for her, Bra was defiantly her father's daughter and hadn't backed down on it, wanting to use the room that had been part of many of her daddy's stories to get stronger so she could fight too. There was also the fact that as she had ascended at the age of six, she was placing strain on the world.

It had taken him a long time to convince her that she needed to spend more time in her normal form than her super form, a fact that she hadn't been happy about, and once she had discovered SSJ2 she had decided to spend as much time in it as possible. When confronted and disciplined, she had agreed to stay SSJ, as he logic was while SSJ they wanted her normal, so SSJ would be the same difference to SSJ2.

They had managed to achieve some stability in her attitude at this point, and as she had practically been born a super saiya-jin, she was able to keep herself at a normal level while in the form. SSJ2 was becoming almost as natural due to a child learning and adapting much faster than an adult, but the older she got the more unruly she became. Ultimately, once she was 9, Vegeto had decided that it would be best if she spent time within the chamber, gaining control through one on one training as well as the solitude of the place.

A compromise had been struck, with Bulma the ever strong willed. She had taken up residence on Kami's lookout for those two days, visiting her daughter for a 20 second period every hour, or the equivalent internally of visiting her for two hours every 16 days. Bra was externally mildly annoyed, though internally she was grateful for her mother's company.

The first year that she had spent in the chamber, Vegeto had spent with her. There had been some uncertainty of if it would work, but Dende had assured them that the chamber considered Vegeto a unique individual, and as such he had access to an additional full 2 years within it. A master of many forms of martial arts through both Goku and Vegeta's lifetimes, he had been able to serve as a great instruct to her.

He had opted out of the second year, however, telling her that she had learned just about as much from each style as he could teach, and that further growth would come to her as she blended what he had passed on into a single style that worked best for her. To help with this, he had somehow managed to convince Gohan to devote a day to spend with the young warrior.

He had spent the first while passing on the basics of the demon style to further expand her base to draw upon, and after he was satisfied with her understanding of it had begun a passive teaching style, helping her find her own strengths and blend the styles into her own unique base as all warriors of multiple styles had to eventually do. One of the rules that he had placed on her training was the she must stay in her SSJ2 form as much as possible, a fact that she had found quite enjoyable.

He found himself startled over time, and even a little frightened, at her pace of growth. As she began to master control and discipline, she also began to hone her wild power. What was originally a torrent of energy and potential he felt lashing around inside of her slowly became tempered and hardened. As he began to help her control her emotions, as he had to learn to do long ago, he felt her power rocket up, quickly approaching his own.

Their final spar, on her last day within the chamber, had found her his dead equal. The fight had come down to technique and ability. What he had on her in experience, she had drive and innovation to match. In the end he had managed to claim the victory, his experience ultimately finding itself just good enough to win. He knew it would probably be the last time he could claim that, however. Perhaps if he had been a warrior at heart, as she was, he would have been better able to handle her. Not knowing the details of SSJ3, what he had most asked himself as they were leaving was why she hadn't achieved the form.

It had been a few months since, and now she found herself squaring off against Gotenks within the chamber. Gotenks had assumed it would be an easy match, not having learned from Gohan was the girl was capable of. Feeling pressed at SSJ, he had ascended to claim the advantage, finding himself shocked when she had done the same reflexively.

Here he was now, over twenty minutes later, looking up at a nine year old girl that was mostly unharmed while he himself was covered in bruises he knew he was going to be feeling in the morning. If he was a lesser man he would be pissed and vengeful at the possible humiliation, but instead he found himself proud. Where as every other Saiya-jin offspring, with the exception of the young Pan, had found themselves more drawn to the human world, she had taken up her Saiya-jin heritage with pride.

Even so, he wasn't going to let her win. While she was stronger than him at any given state, he knew that she couldn't have reached SSJ3. Trunks sharp mind had a basic idea of why Gotenks was able to reach it, and by extension Goku, and he knew that she had no such luxury working in her favor.

She wasn't prepared, then, for the bright flash of light that came, or the uppercut that followed through. Her body, clad within its golden aura, found itself through back, crashing and skidding against thr ground until it came to rest a good distance away, finding her recovery inhibited by a much stronger explosion than any Gotenks had used before.

Most of her Ki went into defending herself from the blast, and what remained was gathered into a blast. She burst through the smoke and paused for a moment to figure out where to release it, as Gotenks had hid his power while her normal senses were occupied with fire and pain.

Her eyes didn't track the now much faster and stronger warrior quick enough, however, and before she registered the loud "Galactic Donut attack" she found her arms pinned to her side by a ring of energy that wrapped around her waste.

She struggled for a few moments, but eventually gave up resisting as she knew it was useless. "You cheated." She pouted, glaring at Gotenks.

"What, SSJ3?" He asked, gesturing at himself. "Well, its your own fault you haven't gotten this far yet. Besides, do you expect the villains that try and destroy this world to take it easy on you? Your going to have to get used to unfair."

It was clear that she was thinking of a retort, but the remaining pout on her face indicated that she was hard pressed to come up with a good one. Gotenks was about to declare the victory his when he felt his energy fluctuate and suddenly he was split, becoming the twin forms of SSJ2 Goten and Trunks who were looking at the now freed Bra.

She mischievously grinned at the pair and began to walk towards them while cracking her knuckles. A look of slight worry shot through their own, and together they began to back up, waving their hands in front of them.

"Wait, wait! We defused, unfair!"

Ten minutes later found a soundly beat Goten and Trunks laying outside the chamber, covered in bruises, burns and cuts waiting on Dende to get around to healing them. Having guessed what happened, the young namek had chosen to heal the much less hurt Bra first, giving the lessen time to soak in for them.

Such was the state that Vegeto found them in when he arrived, with Bra in perfect shape and the pair looking like they had just got caught between Godzilla and Japan in a late night horror movie.

His reaction was a laugh as he headed towards the chamber for his own training. A sudden burst of power shook the Earth as he was walking, sending everyone but himself collapsing to the floor of the lookout, the sheer force making them worry that the planet itself was going to rip itself apart.

Vegeto studied it carefully, giving it some thought and feel while everyone else was working on recovering from their spill as the power began to stabilize. Everyone but Bra recognized the source, a long forgotten and assumed beaten Broly had somehow wound up on Earth.

Ultimately, as everyone regained their feet, Vegeto was once more walking towards to time chamber.

"Wait, dad! What are you doing?" It was Trunks, running up to stand in front of Vegeto. Brolly's power was insane, there was no way that he should be ignoring it.

Vegeto's response was a shrug. "More than likely, Cell figured out a way to bring him here to see how we're progressing. I don't feel like giving him the pleasure of seeing. So I'll let you kids deal with him."

Goten had found his way up to Trunks side, a sweat drop on the side of his face. "But he's stronger than you are as a Super Saiya-jin!"

Another shrug from Vegeto. "Yeah. So is Gotenks at SSJ3. Get Dende to patch you up and go deal with it. Make sure to take your sister though, she needs some real fighting experience before Cell."

Goten and Trunks exchanged worried looks. "He's -stronger- than Gotenks SSJ3!"

Vegeto laughed, remembering the kids earlier encounter with him during his second visit. As young as they had been, it was no wonder that fear had embedded itself in them from the experience. "Your right, he is. But its all Brute power and speed. He doesn't know -how- to fight. Use that against him."

Goten and Trunks gulped, ready to begin arguing again when Vegeto shook his head. "Look, kids. I'm not always going to be around, so I'll be damned if I'm going to crush someone that you all can handle just because you feel like its going to be too hard. You can beat him, so I'm not going to, got it?"

He laughed. "Besides. I've felt your training slacking even worse than it has been. You all are starting to get caught up in your lives, right?" The two exchanged looks and then looked away from him, looking sheepish. "Thats what I thought. Because of that, and with the way your sister is growing, this is probably going to be the last time you really get to show off. You don't want to give up that, do you?"

The pair looked worried, but the worry turned to resignation, and from resignation to something akin to excitement. Finally they nodded at him and settled into their stance, completing the dance to become Gotenks in record time.

"My last world saving fight huh?" He said with a grin. "Fine. He'll make a fitting opponent then. And afterwards, you'll have to call me "Legendary Super Saiya-jin Gotenks!"

Dende had, during the conversation, set about healing the pair, pausing while they were doing the fusion dance. He had taken the chance while they were boosting to finish up, topping off their power and making sure they were in good shape for the fight.

Feeling himself at full power, Gotenks didn't wait for Vegeto to shoot him down and instead blasting off, only just barely hearing the annoyed "Don't forget your sister!" being shouted behind him.

"You sure this is ok? The Dragon Balls aren't here any more, your not going to be able to wish them back if they die." It was Dende speaking, watching the pair speed off.

"They have to learn to take their responsibilities seriously. When I found out Broly was still in Hell, I arranged for his release. It was...necessary. Its better that hes used to teach my kids a lessen than to somehow further Cells plot."

Dende nodded.

"Asides. They just need to think that I'm in the chamber. If things go south, I'm not going to let the world get blown up to satisfy my own pride. I'll step in if I have to, I'm just hoping that this time...it isn't necessary."


	15. Chapter 14

Gotenks and Bra touched down on the field, their attention shifting from the massive power building in the distance to a sole figure dressed in an orange gi, spiky raven black hair standing stiff in defiance of the waves of the energy radiating over them with near hurricane force. Gohan's power was already elevated and vibrant, more than likely to insure that Brolly's attention was drawn to this area before he went on a rampage.

"You overestimated his power." Bra said, slightly disappointed, as she touched down, glancing back at Gotenks. "He's only about as strong as Dad at SSJ. Your a little stronger than he is. If he doesn't know how to fight, this should be easy for you." She rolled her eyes. Lazy boys.

Gohan looked back towards Gotenks and his sister, pausing to take them in. Gotenks had developed a bit since he had last seen him, and he could feel his sisters frightening power flickering within her. Ever her fathers daughter, the fact that she was wearing the clothing that he associated with Vegeto just further added to that feeling.

"It's not that easy." He said, speaking as her teacher in this instance. "Brolly's power rapidly grows the longer he fights, the more angry he gets, and the longer he stays transformed." Truth be told, Gohan thought that it was a rather peculiar genetic mutation rather than an actual SSJ state. It felt very similar to Buu in the last throws of his life. But rather than forced, for whatever reason it seemed like Brolly was naturally leaching energy from the universe around him so long as he was in his LSSJ state. "Further, he's fully indestructible so long as he remains transformed."

Bra pouted. "Thats...cheating. Hes invincible as long as he has power, and he's constantly gaining it? How do you beat something like that?"

Gohans look was serious. "The first time, a super powered spirit bomb was used to crush him between It and a comet. The shock knocked him out of SSJ and left him frozen in space until he landed on Earth."

Gotenks growled. "Yeah. That time, it took all of our combined efforts to drop him into a star. Again, the shock was enough to knock him out, and the star did the rest." He shook his head. "And he was only a fraction of the strength that he is now. I don't think a star would be enough to finish him off this time." He turned to look at Gohan. "You got a plan, big bro?"

Gohan shook his head. "No. The only thing more powerful that I can think of is a larger star...and that would be risky. I doubt it would work. A black hole maybe...but father survived that, and Brolly is stronger than he was when he managed it." He shook his head. "The only reason father survived was because he used all of his energy to attempt an instant transmission. Because of the extreme compression and altered flow of reality within the black hole, and his extreme power, rather than teleporting out the forced burst actually tore a hole in our dimension and dropped him in another."

Gotenks nodded, the Trunks in him managing to follow along. "And theres no way that Brolly could manage something like that."

Gohan nodded. "Right...but theres another problem. If the shock doesn't knock him out of LSSJ, then the very fact that its unable to compress him could cause his to rip through the wall and fall into another dimension. Can we really risk another universe just to save our own?"

"...No." Gotenks replied after a few moments of begrudging thinking. "And even if he doesn't pop out, if he survives too long inside of it, Cell will figure out a way to retreive him, and we're in the same mess all over again. Unlike Father, Cell is free to Instant transmission every which way he wants without fear."

"Exactly." Gohan said approvingly. "Which leaves us with few real options."

Off to the side, Bra yawned. "Yadda yadda yadda. No ones invincible. You boys just didn't hit him hard enough. I'll show you how to handle a male."

Gohan's face displayed obvious annoyance, but before he could retort, a sudden massive burst of power caught all of their attentions and they scattered. A large green ball of energy crashed into the area that they had previously been standing, the condensed energy suddenly and forcefully flashing out and swallowing the surrounding area, vaporizing it.

The smoke was blown away as Gohan blocked a blow from the suddenly present Brolly. Both arms crossed over his chest, the sheer force of the blow was still enough to knock the wind out of him and throw him backwards. As Brolly moved forwards to follow up, a sudden golden streak caught him across the side of the head and caused him to stagger back a few steps, a superficial smudge across his cheek.

Flipping off and landing in a crouch, Bra stood protectively in front of her brother. It only took a moment for Brolly to start to turn his head back with a wicked grin, in what surely would have been a frighting expression, but Gotenks leaped over his and dropped kicked Brolly in the chest, his currently superior power enough to actually knock the giant off his feat and throw him backwards.

A few thumps and a skid later, another burst of power atomized the area surrounding Brolly and he was once more floating in the air.

"We need to end this now, before he gets too strong!" Gohan shouted.

Bra was in something of disbelief. She knew that even her father at SSJ, had he taken that kick, would of at the least had some bruising and discomfort, probably offering up Gotenks an actual compliment on doing something right for a change. But the only discoloration that had been apparent as he had flown back was much from Gotenks boot. Even from the few blows he had taken, he should of at least had a split lip, maybe some minor cuts. But there was no actual damage present.

She was realizing what invincible actually meant.

"Right. Alright Bro, your the one that designed it. The best plan I can think of is our Trinity move." Gotenks said after a brief moment, wondering if the only reason Brolly hadn't immediately attacked was because he was trying to figure out if one of them was "KAKAROTO!!!"

"Just was I was thinking, Gotenks. Bra, follow our lead, and support where you can" Bra's response was a nod. She was stronger than her eldest brother at this point, but his tactical skill was only matched by that of Vegeto. From what she had heard, it was due to his training under a certain Namek that had earned him that claim.

Gotenks and Gohan burst forwards in a close formation, somewhat spiraling around each other as they closed the distance. Brolly slammed his fist towards Gohan, his lack of real skill showing as he overextended himself. Breaking apart, Gohan twisted around the giants arm and grabbed hold of it, bending it back and bracing himself by applying leverage to Brolly's back.

Gotenks simultaneously came down with a massive kick to the overextended and twisted arm, which on any other fighted would have snapped it and rendered it useless. With Brolly, however, the end result was simply a large impact that knocked him off balanced and to one knee to regain it.

Gohan's strength, even with leverage, was no match for the Legendary warrior, and from his knelt position Brolly brought his arm around with the intention of creating a Gohan shaped crater in the ground.

Gotenks twisted around from his first kick and slammed his foot into Brolly's face, causing him to lose his grip on Gohan as he instinctual brought both of his arms in front of him to stop his face from crashing into the ground, leaving Brolly in a rather humorous position as though he were praying.

Momentum and power continued to carry Gohan, however, and he crashed into the ground a little ways away and skidded a small distance, tearing his clothing and giving him some rather bad road burns.

As Gotenks came down for a third kick, Brolly powered up a green ball of energy in his right hand and raised it suddenly from the ground, swatting Gotenks with it. The resulting explosion launched the fused warrior away.

As Brolly returned to his knees, a small golden flash that was Bra was suddenly under him, kicking upwards and driving a Ki enhanced foot into the LSSJs unmentionables. His maniacal grin remained unchanged and he simply looked down towards the girl, showing no more reaction that the slight displacement the force caused on him.

Bra paused for a second too long in shock at her ineffective attack, and Brolly smashed his head downwards and into her own, causing a small spray of blood, a splitting headache, and intimidate disorientation.

Staggered, the young SSJ2 stumbled backwards and fell on her ass unable to see straight as Brolly brought his fist forwards to crush her into the ground.

The swung fist was intercepted by Gohan's flying tackle, bringing it up and wide, leaving Brolly mostly open. Gotenks was quick to take advantage, hoping over Bra and skidding low to drive upwards momentum into Brolly's chest, the force of the SSJ3s blow enough to lift the giant off the ground and throw him into the air.

Gohan released the arm and hit the ground, using it to spring off and launch himself at the airborne monster even as he went to right himself. Crashing into his chest with his full force, Gohan managed to throw him off balance again and send him further into the sky.

Still disoriented, Bra felt someone grab her arm and looked up to see Gotenks. A moment later he spun and jerked, launched her into the air with incredible force. Quickly righting herself and forcing her mind to focus she realised she was heading directly towards Brolly. Payback in her mind, she gripped Gohans outstretched arm as she came to him and let him further boost her momentum, even as she put all the Ki behind it she could, driving her head like a missile into his chest, sending him very high into the air but with more damage to her already aching head than his body.

Right after contact, she heard Gotenks shout: "Galactic Donut!" Before seeing a golden ring shoot above her, and then her brother shoot down past her.

Flipping down acrobatically, Bra landing on her feet across from her brothers, realising that she was in a triangle formation with them. She remembered the name of the plan being the Trinity plan and mentally face palmed, even as she realized the point of it. Between the three of them, they were capible of causing more power than any star in the universe, but if that force was actually done in close proximity to the planet, it could very well destroy it. By putting a fair distance between the combination and energy, good control over its force and direction could help to mitigate the actual harm done.

It was about the same as how she had to learn not to destroy the planet with her SSJ2 transformation.

"Alright, we're going to combine our Kamehameha's on him. The force of the blasts should be enough to shock him out of his LSSJ state, and then vaporize him for good." Gohan stated as he looked over both of them.

"Wait, wait wait! Why does it have to be Kamehameha? That's your signature technique! You don't get all of the glory out of this one!" Gotenks, immature as usual, shouted.

"Fine, fine! We don't have time for this! Use whatever!" Gohan shouted back, even as his own arms were twisting at his side, forming into the familiar pose for the Kamehameha.

Gotenks grinned and breathed in deep, expanding his chest to comical levels as he tilted his head back, ready to unleash a massive mouth blast up towards the Legendary Saiya-jin.

Bra, for her part, had been powering up her own attack since she had realized what was going on. To each side she held her arms outstretched, similar to the pose for final flash but with the elbows slightly bent and the palms facing upwards. Twin balls of energy were glowing with increasingly concentrated energy and she poured most everything that she had into them.

Gohan brought his arms forwards, twisting them so that his cupped palms opened up towards the sky as he let our a cry of "Kamehameha!" A massive blue wave of energy exploding from his hands.

Gotenks didn't actually announce his attacks name, instead simply shouting "VICTORY!" as a more massive blast of golden energy erupted from his mouth at the same time.

Bringing her arms slightly ups and forwards, crossing the right over the left palm and forming an X with her forwards palm facing towards the opponent, she let out her own cry. "Dragon's Flash!" The technique was a hybrid name from Vegeta's final flash, whom the technique was mostly derived from, and Dragon's fist, a technique Goku had developed but never actually had the chance to golden, she wasn't about to give Gotenks the satisfaction of mimicking his color, and instead went with red for this particular blast. As a result, a massive red beam with the vague shape of a dragons head blasted upwards from her outstretched hands.

The blasts of Gold, blue and red crashed into the monstrous LSSJ from each of three directions, creating a massive explosion of mixed colors. Using all the control they could manage, the three just barely kept the backwash from the blasts from radiating to the planet below, instead forcing all of the energy upwards. With one last shove, the managed to focus all present energy into a single beam and fire it into the void of space above, where it was free to dissipate.

Slightly exhausted, the three looked at each other with smiles, Gotenk's striking the pose for victory.

"So, how was your first real life or death fight?" Gohan asked as he walked over to Bra, pulling out a handkerchief and wiping some of the blood away from her head.

"Exciting." She replied with a smile, and Gohan observed something akin to hunger in her eyes, something he had only seen in two people before her, two people that had equally contributed to half of her being. "Invincible just means its a punching bag you can't break."

Gohan chuckled and rubbed her head before looking over at Gotenks. "About how much longer do you have left?"

Gotenks laughed. "Quite awhile. We managed to wrap that looser up in a few short minutes."

"Well, Brolly is a mass of power, but his lack of actual technical skill leaves him unable to deal with several opponents at once. We trained in teamwork maneuvers for opponents just like him." Gohan reached into his pocket and pulled out his glasses, before looking down and realizing that they were smashed.

A sudden explosion of dirt brought their attention to the side of them, where they observed a bloody and beaten Saiya-jin standing in a crater that he had just fallen into. As he looked at them, green hair suddenly burst into gold, and smaller body size suddenly erupted into a massive one. Blood, gashes, cuts and burns lined Brolly's body, and his left arm was missing. Even so, he was still alive, much to everyones shock.

"We held back too much to protect the planet!" Gohan exclaimed. "He managed to stay in LSSJ through enough of our attack that it didn't have enough energy to finish him off when he dropped out!"

Immediately the three of them powered up as much as they could, but while they had spent the majority of their energy to cause serious wounds to Brolly, with this particular fighter, it was all or nothing. In the scheme of things, he was much stronger than when the fight began, the only real accomplishment they could claim being the lose of some minor versatility due to the loss of his arm.

Going into phase two of this fight, even the most confident among them had little faith in their victory.


	16. Chapter 15: Unintended Conciquences

Bra reacted first, probably her lack of previous history not giving her pause for hesitation like her brothers. Gotenks had paused for a moment as memories of his first encounter with the legendary SSj flooded through his mind, while Gohan was trying to figure out a plan, and wondering if using what he had brought along would help them at all. They hadn't had a chance to test it, and he was uncertain of the results.

Nothing like her brothers thoughts holding her back, the now 11 year old shot forwards to engage the beast. She pulled back her fist and gathered energy into it, her plan to see if his eyes were as invulnerable as the rest of him. The attack would never connect though, as his hand shot forwards and gripped around her head mid flight as though palming a basketball before slamming her into the ground with a spray of blood and a sickening snap. She tried to scream but found that she couldn't tried to crawl a way and found herself unable. All she could do was look up at the foot that was being brought above her and that vicious, mad grin plastered across his face as her body refused to obey her actions.

A sudden twisting and spiraling beam shot above her and drilled into the titan's chest, knocking him off his feet and sending him crashing to the ground a few yards away. Somewhere behind her she felt her brother's Ki take a massive plummet as he dropped out of SSj3, his energy spent in that shot.

Gohan growled, knowing he was out of options, and tossed a capsule towards Brolly. A second later it proofed open and tiny robotic devices swirled around him before an energy shield sprung to life between them. The giant struck against the barrier, only to have his attack repelled. He screamed in rage and tried again, with the same end result. The most interesting this was that despite being able to clearly see the monster, they couldn't feel his Ki at all.

"Well. It works." He said, no real confidence in his voice, the prototype was holding, but there was no telling if it would last.

He glanced over to the side of the battlefield. "How long were you planning on hiding out over there, Dad?"

A sheepish looking Vegeto stepped out from behind some debre that had piled up at the edge of a crater during the fight. "I wasn't sure if you two were going to save your sister in time, so I came down to make sure…"

Gohan groaned. "So what exactly was your plan? Sit around and just let us get trashed until you were satisfied? His power constantly grows, what were you planning on doing about it?"

A smirk came across Vegeto's features. "Constantly grows? Are you sure about that? What's the design behind the device you just used?"

"Complete Ki negation. It forms a barrier of polarized energy to separate the ki on both sides of it. We learned that ki is actually a massive, but limited, supply in the universe. That led us to be able to think of it in different terms…though we had help from Dr. Gero's designs. As long as he's in that bubble, he won't have access to any ki outside of it, and no one outside of it will be able to sense him."

Another smirk from the elder Saiya-jin. "Right." All around them, for a several mile radius, there was a slight flicker of shimmering before it went back to clear. "It wouldn't have been good for any of us if Cell knew Brolly was stomping around down here."

Gohan looked at his father dumbfounded. "You did this?"

A shrug. "Yes. Your sister needed to face a life or death battle in which the Universe, and your lives, wasn't really at stake. Frankly, I'm just glad you all pulled your punch on that energy blast. Any stronger and it would have pierced the barrier and I'd have all kinds of dirt on my face."

Gohan walked towards Vegeto with a growl. "And what was the plan if it didn't hold up? There's no way you could possibly guarantee it would work!"

Another shrug. "I trust you and Bulma to be the geniuses you are. Any device created by the two of you…there's no doubt it will work like it's supposed to, even the first time."

The compliment left Gohan dumbfounded, his pride fighting with his caution and common sense for control. In the end, a more partial "numb" won out. "What about him?" He said at last.

Vegeto shrugged and pulled out a remote, shutting down the barrier that held Brolly back, much to Gohan's shock.

The titan imidiately roared with rage and launched himself forwards, while Vegeto calmly pulled back his fist as a shimmering of multihued light swirled around it.

"KAKAROTOO!" Roared through the air only ending as Vegeto's fist crashed against Brolly's chest causing the multihued light to shimmer and swirl through the giant's body. A second later he burst into pure energy and scattered throughout the large contained area in a blinding flash of light.

"It's a special technique the Supreme Kai are supposed to know. I had to learn it from the elder Kai, as it was never passed on to our Supreme kai. Basically it's the same principal as the soul cleansing Machine. It breaks apart the latent energy stored in a soul so it can be recycled. Still, it can only be used on people already dead, so I doubt it will help us against whatever Cell has…"

He paused, his gaze shifting down with a look of dread at something Gohan couldn't sense. Suddenly Vegeto was passed him even as he felt the crash against his chest and himself being throne backwards, a flash of gold stunning his vision. When he twisted around, he saw a healed Bra clutching her head and holding back a growl as a frightened Gotenks backed away from a very angry Vegeto.

"WHAT DID YOU DO?" He roared at the young teen.

"I…I just gave her a Senzu. She had a broken neck and was hurt! I just thought…"

"The technique doesn't cleanse the energy! It just breaks it apart!"

Suddenly himself and Bra were gone, Gohan's only hint as to where they had gone being the energy barrier separating them from the rest of the world collapsing, moments after he felt the weird sensation of a vortex pulling at his spirit.

He sat up and rubbed at the cracked rib where Vegeto had blown past him and winced slightly, figuring it wasn't the worst thing that could have happened. No, he thought. The worst thing that could have happened currently was, due to a well intentioned act.

"I…don't get it." Gotenks twin voice said as he walked over to help his older brother up.

Gohan's eye held a deep worry as he looked towards Kami's palace. "You fed her a senzu…and gave her a Zenkai." He sighed, seeing the confusion in Gotenks eyes. "Ki is limited. We were literally cut off from any ambient ki that wasn't present, and compared to us that's next to nothing. We are so powerful that gaining more power literally takes a noticeable chunk from the rest of the universe. It's why our growth get's slower as we get stronger. We're competing against each other to absorb it, and because there is less and less. It's also why Zenkai get smaller and smaller as you get more powerful… She wouldn't have gained much strength at all….but since dad just Vaporized Brolly…"

"She absorbed his energy." Gotenks finished. "Still…that just makes her stronger, right?"

"She didn't absorb all of it. It was just a super charged Zenkai. A Saiya-jin Zenkai acts as a sudden pull on all of the energy around a person. Even if you super saturate it, there's still only so much the body can pull in at one time. That's not the problem though." He furrowed his brows. "I don't understand it completely, but energy takes on the flavor of the person that has it. It's why we can tell the difference between people by their energy signatures and in some cases can tell emotions or personalities for them. Frieza's was icy cold, the Majin curse is like a twisting, pulsating sickness. Cell felt like all of us. It's also why Ki has to be purified before it's released back into the universe."

Gotenks gulped at the implication. "So…I…" He stammered.

Gohan looked stern. "Yes. There was no way you could know, and you didn't mean to, But Bra just absorbed some of Brolly's Ki…ki tainted with madness and rage."

…..

(A/N: Sorry for lack of updates on this and Shaded Chronicles, school has had me ungodly busy. That, and some revelations in DBM made me have to take some serious time to consider how to make the story matchup with it. It might feel a little clunky, but I'm happy with how it turned out. It will have to be fleshed out and developed over the next few chapters, but I hope you guys feel like this is at least a passing explanation about how Bra goes from how she is earlier in my story to how she will be in DBM.)


	17. Chapter 16: Fallout

"I did what I could." Gohan heard a high pitched voice coming from within Kami's palace. Recognizing it, he stepped into the building to see Bra laying unconscious within, Chiaotzu hovering over her with sweat bedded on his face from what obviously took a lot out of him.

"You did good, Chiaotzu." Vegeto's voice was stoic, and his demeanor as he leaned against a pillar overlooking the affair was detached and concerned. "She's asleep now, at least."

Chiaotzu shook his head. "That wasn't hard. I'm sorry I couldn't do more."

Their attention was drawn to a sudden, familiar, presence in the room. Landing with little noise, the Supreme Kai spoke up. "Nor should you blame yourself for it. This is a rare situation, and never before has it happened to someone of her power. When she wakes up, she'll be a very real threat to not just us, but the universe." He raised his hands and pointed down towards her.

His attempted action was left incomplete as Vegeto snatched the larger man around the throat and hoisted him up off of the ground. "I don't give a damned what kind of threat she is. If you harm my daughter the Grand Kai will be getting a promotion."

He dropped the Kai, who fell to the floor unceremoniously while rubbing his throat. "I wasn't going to hurt her."He coughed out, while raising from the ground."Something has to be done about that Ki running rampant through her body. There's no way to separate it from her without…" He trailed off, the present company familiar with what he meant. "In a normal human being, it might be possible to seal it away, but…"

"Our transformations are adaptive." Gohan said as he entered the room proper, to stand beside his father while looking down at his sister and the Supreme Kai.

"Yes. If the powers locked away, it's entirely possible that her transformations will just adapt to tap into the sealed power." He shook his head. "With your permission, I'd like to attempt to see if I can at least temper it a bit. If I can stream it through more seamlessly with her existing power, it should at least restrain it better." He paused, uncertain. "There…will be some changes to her, regardless of what's done. And I can't say for certain what the effect on her transformations will be even if I do this."

Vegeto shook his head. "Do what you have to, kai. What's the alternative? My daughter runs around like that lunatic Brolly?"

The Supreme Kai nodded and crouched over her prone form, placing his hands to rest a short distance over her chest. A slight glow radiated from him and over her body, which responded by lighting up with a fierce blue light. Slowly though, little flickers of sickly green ran through it, little flashes and streaks until it was running throughout her entire aura intertwined with the blue.

The supreme kai's energy pulsed, the sickly green ki began swirling in her blue, intermixing and stabilizing within it, causing the aura as a whole to take on a slightly disturbed blue look. His eyebrows furrowed as he worked. "This isn't right. She absorbed more of the Ki than is here…"

He caught his breath in his throat as her eyes shot open, teal colored, and her aura exploded with a sickly golden green. The sudden burst of power tossed him back and through the wall of the lookout as her father and brother braced themselves. As a bloodthirsty scream escaped her throat and she launched forwards, Vegeto appeared behind her and wrapped his arms around her shoulders pinning her own to her sides. Her response was to kick and scream as a fury of ki flowed around her, a with a burst of rage from her mouth vaporizing a large section of wall.

"Hold her steady!" The supreme kai shouted as he staggered back in, holding his hands back up and causing her aura to fluctuate. He pressed as much as he could into it, causing the sickly aura to pull back and away, leaving her natural golden aura to take dominance. The murky confusion in her eyes faded away as she looked up and over her shoulder. "Daddy? What's happening to me?"

Vegeto choked for a moment and didn't speak, obviously disturbed by the events. "You're…sick." He said finally. "The Kai is trying to make you better."

But as quickly as the clarity had came over her features it was gone again as Broly's aura flooded back through and taking over her own. Rage flooded back over her features, and sweat poured down Shin's face as he resisted the torrent with everything he had.

Falling to one knee, he grunted as the sheer power of the tainted ki began to overtake him when he suddenly felt a hand rest against his back, and energy flood through him. Familiar energy, energy that he could use, energy granted by a Kai. Without glancing over his shoulder he offered a thanks to Gohan as he channeled the new source of power into his fight.

The corrupted ki began to lose its cohesion, breaking apart within the girls ki. After a few minutes it completely dissipated, leaving the girls normally golden ki with only a slight, overall look of corrosion.

She fell quite for a moment and fell limply in her father's arms. It wouldn't be enough, though, as one last explosion of energy rocked through her causing her hair to spike further in a wild display, lightning coursing through her aura as she ascended further.

Shin let out a sigh of desperation and hopelessness as he looked on, no trace of the girls natural Ki in the form. They all felt the raise in power, with Vegeto flashing golden and Gohan having just enough time to push Shin behind him before the sudden explosion of power overwhelmed their senses.

When it cleared, Vegeto was being driven back due to an onslaught of berserker attacks from his younger daughter. He was taking little real damage, but his unwillingness to fight back was making what little damage getting passed around to fall on his shoulders.

Grabbing onto a capsule that looked similar to what he had used against Broly, Gohan waited until Vegeto deflected one of Bra's attacks and sent her tumbling away before tossing it at her. The sudden shield burst to life around her, and much like Broly earlier, she through all of her rage against it attempting to break through with little success. Unlike Broly, however, she wasn't invincible and the explosions she tossed against it caused serious burns and wounds across her body. Still she continued.

"Shut it off!" Vegeto yelled as he flew towards it. "She's killing herself!"

Gohan yelped an agreement and reached into his pocket to fish out the remote, eyes flickering down towards it, missing the sickening grin that flickered across his sister's face as he did so. When he glanced up she was no longer in the shell of energy, and he only registered her energy behind him less than a moment before her hand burst out his chest.

Only a moment later Vegeto flashed passed him and slammed into his daughter, violently ripping the hand out of his son's chest in the process. Gohan groaned and collapsed to his knees as blood pooled around him, even as his brain figured out how long he could stave off brain death without a heart.

It was a short lived near death experience as he felt a warmth of energy flood through him and his wounds sealed up as his body stitched itself back together.

"Thanks…Shin." He said as he rubbed the tender spot and wearily got back to his feat, the Kai not having near the energy at this point to restore his strength. "The weakness of the item. Teleportation techniques bend space and time, so they can bypass the space that it occupies." He shook his head. "I expect her to be in a blind, berserk state like Brolly…but it seems like she still has some intelligence, enough to use her techniques."

A sudden overwhelming sense of pressure and power overwhelmed them from the fight overhead, and a moment later an Ascended Vegeto landed in front of them, a struggling Bra pinned to his chest.

Gohan noticed Shin glance to Choatzu, and a moment later Bra stopped struggling. Both grew more serious as they devoted what energy they had left to dive into the young girls mind and soul, her aura lighting back up, fluctuating and pulsing. Like earlier, the sickly Ki began to smooth out, but unlike with the lower forms there wasn't enough of Bra's natural ki in this form to mix with. Even as Shin manage to smooth it out as best as he could, he realized there was no hope that he could give her anything resembling real control in this form.

It was just enough, though, that as the murkiness of her eyes cleared slightly allowing her to take in the destruction that she had caused she let out a scream of shock and regret and her aura died away as she passed out.

"Why didn't you ascende earlier?" Gohan spat as he pulled himself back onto his feat, having been knocked down in the last exchange of power.

Vegeto pointed up, and Gohan realized there was a shimmering shield flickering around the lookout. "I wasn't sure it would contain me transforming. We can't let Cell see out hand. As dangerous as your sister is, he is far worse. In the end, I had to risk it though."

Gohan nodded with some slight understanding. "How'd you…"

A slight, false, chuckle from Vegeto as he struggled to keep his spirits up. "Bulma has been drawing up a system that crosses the entire planet the past year. She was waiting for us to have a chance to test it, but…" He trailed off. "If we cloak the entire planet, Cell's bound to notice. But if we just disappear for short periods of time that's no different than us going into the time chamber."

He sighed and walked over to the Kai, who was dusting himself off. "So, what's the verdict? Is she going to be alright?"

Shin shook his head, a degree of sadness to the action. "Mostly. There's going to be a lot of aggression and anger that wasn't there previously, and it will be stronger when she's in her transformed state…" He trailed off. "There's too much corruption in her second level, and not enough of her own energy to balance it out. As she get's stronger she'll gain more and more control over it, but for now if she goes into that form it's just going to leave her a berserker like you saw."

Vegeto nodded. "Well…it could have been worse, I guess. So many things had to go wrong to make this happen…" He sighed and walked over to pick up his daughter. "I just wanted her too…I never wanted this."

And then he was gone, flying over the side to take his little girl home.

"So…who's going to tell Dende?" Chaotzu joked, trying to alleviate the situation.


	18. Chapter 17: The Best is Yet to Come

AN: The hitcount suggests I lost about half my readers due to the long delay between updates...which just tells me how much more awesome those of you that stuck around are. ^_^. Anyways, here's this one, we should only have a couple of chapters left now. Remember to review, it's a fanfic writers lifeblood. ;-)

...

"What do you mean no?" Vegeto growled lowly, standing tall and proud over the elder kaio, who simply returned his stair unflinching while sitting on the edge of the lookout. Something about being one of the oldest beings in the universe was the prospect of potential death, in this case final death even, didn't much bother him. That, and he knew that Vegeto wasn't going to kill him, there was enough Goku swimming around in him to prevent that. A slight grin spread across his face as he watched a voluptuous vixen half the world away jog down a beach topless. Some things hadn't been lost with age. "I mean it's impossible. The technique doesn't work on Kais or Kaios."

Vegeto grunted with annoyance, though a small amount of relief swept through him at the note that it wasn't possible to have his power unlocked, for whatever reason. Too much pride was swimming through him, from both of his contributors, to look forwards to having a hand out of power. Desperation and a desire to protect family won out in him begrudgingly asking, but the relief at not being able to follow through was no less real.

He scratched his head, annoyance fading. "I'm not either."

The old kaio didn't glance back at him. "No, you dolt. But those earings are meant for Kaios. What was your base strength when you fused?"

Vegeto shrugged. "About what Kakaroto's SSj3 was. Maybe a little weaker or stronger, hard to remember that far back."

"Exactly. How strong should you have been if it was a simple merger of your bodies?"

Vegeto thought about that. "I guess probably about twice Kakaroto or Vegeta's base strength." He tapped his chin. "That's not right either. Vegeta didn't have SSj3 power tied to him, so the absolute strongest I would have been with a merger, even at max level, would be an SSj3 + an SSj2... which is just barely a noticeable fraction in comparison to my SSj strength alone. An extra, massive, well of power had to come from somewhere."

The elder nodded. "And you had access that ascended state of yours as well. Phenomenal, overkill power, to the point of causing near imbalance to everything that exists in our universe." He finally turned his attention to the Saiya-jin. "Of course you have no idea where the power came from. Long ago in the first order of Kaioshin, whom I count myself a member of, it was decided that the Kaioshin and Kais should never directly interfere in the world of mortals. Instead, we decided that should we feel the need to alter the course of events, we would give power to a mortal to champion our cause. Thus we took 2% of the total power of the universe, half from the living world and half from the other world, and created a special purified pool of ki in which to power our champions. It would serve as where they would get their massive boost of power from, as to not cause minor imbalances between the ki in otherworld and the living world."

He looked stern, for a moment. "As our champions died, the energy would be recycled into the pool. But to truly purify energy to the point where it works with my own unlock ability and the potara, you need a full set of Kaioshin, something that we are not fortunate to have, and likely won't have for another millennia or two."

"Ah." Vegeto nodded. "You've already given out so much of that power, you don't want to risk not having it available in the several thousand years between when we die and when you can refill it."

The kaio suddenly looked very tired, and looked away. "I hadn't thought that you would be as powerful as you were. Saiya-jins are new, and I knew nothing of the modifications that had been done to your race. The process of fusion broke apart your bodies and reassembled them, but the adaptive qualities for accelerated growth within you took advantage of this recombination by rapidly adapting your forms to hold more and more power."

Vegeto paused, a slightly concerned look in his features. "How much power?"

The old Kaio shrugged. "I think you know the answer to that. The only thing that limited your power in that moment was that the well ran dry."

Another pause from Vegeto, as he noticed a slight hole in the story. "What about when you unlocked the earthlings power?"

Old kaio chuckled. "I belief Gohan may have been too embarrassed to tell them the exact process to actually unlocking ones power. Having no idea, they could just assume that the intense training I put them through was the same that Gohan had undergone."

A chuckle from the fused Saiya-jin, which trailed off with a measure of some distress. "I had hoped that you would have been able to unlock Bra's power. The extra ki would have done wonders to help marginalize Broly's."

For once, the old kaio actually seemed to show some regret. "I'm sorry that it isn't possible. The boost in amount of power would certainly have reduced the control of Broly, and removing the emotional element from her power by breaking down the walls and allowing her base access to all of her strength without the need for transformations would certainly have done a sight good to rectify the situation." He shook his head. "It can't be helped. Even the Dragon wouldn't have been able to do anything."

Vegeto nodded. "Very well. I appreciate you coming down here and answering my questions. I guess we're going to have to mostly do this the old fashioned way."

...

Morning. Exhaustion. The entire night had been spent holding his daughters hand while trying to ignore the piercing screams that seemed to shake the entire structure as the nightmares tore through her skull. Madness and rage coursed through her, and even during her waking hours he could see the struggle coursing through her, the fire dancing behind her eyes.

The worst of it was that he knew every slight pain that she suffered was his fault. His irresponsibility had caused this. If he had just been paying more attention, or if he'd not been reckless enough to make the kids fight the madman none of this would have happened. So many things he could have done differently to avoid what had happened, and he had failed on every account. He had made potentially the rest of his daughters life a living hell, all for what? The sake of his own pride?

She was awake now, Gohan, Trunks and Goten all going on a picnic. She deserved some calm rest and fun...and she needed the supervision for now. For the moment, Gohan wouldn't let his own daughter anywhere near her though, afraid for his little girl. Vegeto was hurt, and he could tell Bra knew what was going on, but he couldn't blame him. Pan though, that was another one he could be proud of. She was growing fairly rapidly, and would be passing up Goten and Trunks sooner than the pair would be happy about.

For now though, he allowed his eyes to close, hoping to drift away from the panging guilt that beat at him during the past few days. Exhaustion claimed him, and the world went black.

It seemed only like a few moments later he found himself in the sureal landscape of Otherworld, his hazy mind wondering why he would dream of such a thing. There were differences, though, from the Otherworld he was used to. First, the landscape was much different than any location he had been to, not that he had been many places, and the sky around them was as dark as the darkest of nights.

Probably what was most unusual was the giant red dragon that hung in the sky for a moment, eyes glowing as though it had just granted a wish, before it suddenly exploded and 7 giant dragonballs shot off in every which direction. Was this dream more of his guilt? Wishing that a wish on a dragon could put things right? That even in his dreams, where there was apparently a dragon, it had already been used moments before he could make used of it?

His own thoughts were sidelined as with the dragon not occupying his eyesight his attention shifted to rest on the large Namek approaching him from where it had been.

"It's good to see you again, Vegeto."

"Sorry." Vegeto said with a yawn, oddly exhausted for a dream. "I don't think that we've met before."

The Namek look slightly amused, though also seemed as though the weight of the world was resting wearily on his shoulders. "No, I don't suppose that you've met me, though I've met you many times."

Vegeto looked quizzically, but resigned himself to shrugged. Dreams were weird sometimes...most of the time. "What type of metaphor is that supposed to be?"

The large Namek, easily 9 feet tall, rested an arm on Vegeto's shoulder. "This is no dream, Vegeto. This is a vision, a vision of Hell."

Vegeto looked around, as the world lightened from the dragon dispersing, eyes taking in the jagged mountains and rivers of blood. A chilling breeze blew through, and he realized that they were alone. "Where is..."

"Gone. Most of them were recycled, becoming ambient energy in Otherworld above, punishments thrown out in the name of the safety of the Universe. The rest...Cell. We're only luck that he either can't or has chosen not to raid the upper otherworld yet."

Vegeto nodded, suddenly very solemn. "How strong is he?"

The Namek looked very worried. "Unbelievably so. He's destroying everything that he runs across. He knows techniques that allows him to utterly destroy a soul. No second chances, no need to die twice. One time, and you shatter into lose Ki. After that, the Majin curse absorbs it and channels it into him."

Shock swept through him. Cell was becoming so strong that his power could literally be measured as a percentage of all the ki in the Universe...which was appropriate, as that's how he was gaining strength. Realization swept through him. "He plans on casting the entire Universe except Earth into a state of nothingness before coming for us."

"Yes. All power that isn't on Earth, isn't in your champions, population, planet and Sun will be part of him before he returns. That's the bad news."

Vegeto looked at the Namek with suspicion. "There's good news?"

A nod. "What you saw was the most powerful manifestation of Dragon to ever exist, or is ever likely to exist. It was powerful enough to create a barrier that specifically disallows Cell from crossing over into Otherworld again...for a time. He will eventually be able to pierce it, but in a span of time measured in decades. The fate of the Universe will be decided before he bothers with the barrier."

Vegeto nodded. "I was told that a balance existed, half the Ki in the living world and half the ki in the other world. Denying him access to half his potential strength is certainly good news."

The Namek nodded. "There's more. First, Cell was overly ambitious when he set his time table. At his current rate of progress, even accounting for his rapid growth of power, you have an additional two years to prepare for his return."

A sigh of relief from Vegeto. "There's more?"

The Namek nodded. "Transform to your third stage, Vegeto."

Vegeto looked at him, concerned. "I can't. The way it works..."

He was cut off. "I'm aware of how your psudostage of Super Saiya-jin works. I sacrificed enough power to grantee Cell wouldn't be able to cross the barrier for centuries to give you a chance, because I know that if you fail on the other side everything is doomed regardless of the time table."

Vegeto nodded and braced himself, slowly building the power up. Like crossing through a doorway, the first stage slipped through him. Power remained condensed, not fluctuating around him in the least as he concentrated it within him, reinforcing his stability. Lighting crackled through the golden aura as his hair spiked solidly up, before the aura suddenly shot into his body and absorbed through it. He felt himself his the barrier, felt his body giving way as he pressed his power further and further up.

His memories of Goku's transformation flooded through him as he remembered the seemingly limitless strength as he crossed through the barrier and grabbed hold of what he would one day have. But as Vegeto crossed that barrier, as he felt his body slightly destabilize as unbearable pain flushed through him, he found a massive pond of energy laying on the other side. Massive, but nowhere near the seemingly unlimited ocean that he had encountered as Goku. He thought perhaps it was simply a relative difference, due to the magnitude of difference between there strengths, but as he grabbed hold of is and felt it poor into his body, he realized it wasn't the case.

The world returned around him in a sudden burst as his pattern was forcibly snapped back into place, power flowing through him. There was certainly a massive difference in strength between his SSj2 and his new SSj3, evident by the very world around him rising into the air and swirling around him, but the magnitude of difference fell far short of the other examples of the stage. If he had to guess, he would say he was only around half the strength of the full transformations capabilities.

The Namek nodded with some concern as he looked on. "It's as I thought. Perhaps the wish was wasted...it's very likely you would have been able to handle that magnitude of power without the safeguard in place. The dragon couldn't simply grant you the stage, but I was able to word a wish so that if you lost your stability in the process your soul would be forced back together before it could disperse."

A slight nod occurred from Vegeto, not concerned with the specifics, attention more turned to himself and the lack of power he knew he should have.

"Look around us, Vegeto." The Namek said, realizing Vegeto hadn't noticed.

The fused Saiya-jins attention shifted back to the world, and as he looked around with some startle, he realized that they were floating alone inside a void where Hell had once been.

"That was all the energy that Hell had to offer, all the ambient energy that even Otherworld above had to offer. Everything that remains in the world of the dead lays locked within the bodies and physical objects that remain within it. Hell was completely broken apart and sacrificed for your strength, as it has become unnecessary now."

Vegeto nodded, shakily, the realization of everything setting heavy upon him. "Was it enough?"

The Namek considered for a moment before looking away. "I do not know. The balances of power between the worlds of the living and dead has become so unbalanced over the course of the past few decades that it's impossible to tell if there was a true balance. If more of the power lay on this side of the divide, you would certainly hold the advantage as between you and your family there wouldn't be enough power on the other side for Cell to match it."

"What happens now? What do we do now? Is there any point in training further?"

The Namek nodded a confirmation. "Yes. The living universe still has a great deal of ambient energy not locked in a body, and Cell's process isn't 100% efficent, some still escapes into the larger Universe due to entropy. Every ounce of power that your family can gain pools that much power from how much Cell can ultimately obtain."

A grin came to Vegeto's features. "So despite everything, despite every little trick, every play of the cards, every piece on the chessboard being moved, everything boils down to good, old fashioned training?"

The Namek nodded. "Yes, just like old times, Vegeto." A sudden flash of light occurred around the Namek, and suddenly Piccolo was standing beside him. "The Namek that is most familiar with you will be traveling back with you. He has all of our gained knowledge, and will be able to assist you."

Realization set in Vegeto on who, or what, the Namek standing in front of him was, but he didn't voice it. There would be little point in narrating something that all three of them were aware of.

Before he could say anything else, though, he found himself once again laying in his bed, a yawn sweeping through him as this time he really fell asleep. They had another 9 years before Cell came now, one night of rest wasn't going to doom them.


End file.
